The Alchemic Saiyan
by Divine Saiyan Psyagon
Summary: Multiple Universes. The possibilities that entails are endless. The likelihood of there being only a single version of a person in the Omniverse is near zero. This is the story of what happens to one very lucky version of Edward Elric who meets Goku.
1. Chapter 1: Things Always Backfire

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

(A/N: This takes place in the Manga-Faithful Version of the anime: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood, and of course, in the most famous of all Ani-verses; Dragon Ball Z. This story takes place before the death of Colonel Maes Hughes, so it is A/U because Hughes's death is prevented among other radical changes.)

IMPORTANT UPDATE! Due to people constantly complaining about how and why the characters from various other series outside of Dragon Ball Z and Fullmetal Alchemist are appearing in chapters 2-6, It has become necessary to issue this Word of God, the Trope you can find at TV TROPES. This story was originally a side story to my main Series Dragon Ball GX, The Next Generation, which was going to be at least a duology, unfortunately, in the real world and my real life, events changed who I am and what I believe in during the middle of the publishing of the Dragon Ball GX, Mephelis the Dark Saga, and I sadly have lost all contact but one of the former friends who was helping me create it, and the series planned publication here was cancelled for good.

However, I consider the story that was meant to be, something that actually happened, and its to be considered to be the past of what the characters you do not know about, have lived through when they are mentioned in Chapters 2-6, but since I could not finish the series they appear in, I will say this.

IGNORE THEM

If you cannot extrapolate what's going on or why they are appearing, then just read through it and quit trying to figure things out, you'll miss out on this good story I want to finish. I adapted this earlier on in its creation entirely by mistake, which turned out to be a good thing, so that the Alchemic Saiyan can be a stand-alone tale, and you won't have to read the cancelled Mephelis the Dark Saga to follow it once you get past chapter 6 here. So do not quit here just because it is confusing before chapter 7, push through and then you'll find what I consider to be a very good tale, and for those of you thinking that Edward is now a hero sue/stu because of what you'll read he has gone through, well keep reading and see if you're really correct or not, by the time you near chapter 28 you'll realize there is a foe for him to face.

**Chapter 1: Things Always Backfire**

**Edward Elric**

"MAN! I HATE THIS! ALL THAT EVIDENCE TO THE PHILOSOPHERS STONE BLOWN TO BITS!" I scream, as I suddenly snap out of my stupor induced by Envy's kick to the head.

Then I noticed he and Lust were still here, slowly walking away.

I scowled, my rage building, and with a roar of pure fury, I said, "FUCK YOU TWO!"

Jumping out of my brother's arms, I then forced my malfunctioning Automail hand to clap against my other one, and transmuted a huge wave of pillars toward them.

Caught totally by surprise, the earthquake and eruption of ground knocked them all the way back to my feet.

"I'm gonna kill you two murderers!" I say angrily, my voice low and threatening as I punch my Automail fist into my flesh palm.

**Son Goku**

The year is 805 A.D Things are peaceful, the world is safe, all our friends happy with their wives and kids, and some of the kids of our friends were getting near the point of marriage themselves.

However, one thing that has never changed, and never will, is me and Vegeta.

Now being practically immortal like Master Roshi and Baba, we had who knows how many countless eons to train and battle each other, and see who can best the other in friendly combat.

Though our definition of "friendly" could be considered quite unsafe for normal people.

A casual spar between me and the Prince of Saiyans, if not performed in a mystically enhanced area, could result in the destruction of an entire Solar System-if not more. Our powers now on a level nearly unimaginable, only the most heavily enhanced landscapes or arenas could take the full might of our highest transformed states.

That being said, we were both about to have a spar on Adam's newly enhanced Sky Arena, which had become famous the Universe over, as the largest free-floating battle arena in any known universe, with diameter of 5000 Miles across.

We were alone up there, just me and Vegeta-about to engage each other in pitch-combat once again.

"You ready Vegeta?" I smirk.

"Always Kakarot, Always" he smiles.

With a flash, we both burst into Super Saiyan 12, our hair wildly elongated and flowing up against gravity like antennae. The ground cracked and burst, but thankfully the seals and barriers kept the arena from being torn in half from our sudden transformation into SS12.

"So Kakarot, ready to see my new move?" Vegeta smarts off.

"Yeah-ready to see mine?" I retort back with a smile.

**Edward Elric**

The battle between Envy and myself was getting intense; I had to wrap this up before my automail was destroyed completely and Winry knocked my block off for it.

"Alright, get ready for a move you'll never forget you bastard!" I scream as I clap my hands together, and charge energy into my automail limb.

"Hmmm, that destruction technique, like that Scar guy uses eh? I can do that too ya know shrimp" Envy says as he charges the same energy into his left arm.

Upon hearing being called "Shrimp" I flipped out, and lost all restraint.

"DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME A SHRIMP YOU DAMN FREAK!" I bellow, as I thrust my arm toward him.

**Narrator**

At the same time Edward and Envy's energies were about to collide, Goku and Vegeta had begun charging their unbelievably powerful Ki blasts, mixed with another powerful energy.

"CHAOS…" they both began, each drawing their arms and hands into the positions of their signature moves.

Then at the same time, they unleashed their new variations of their calling card attacks.

"FINAL FLASH!"

"KAMEHAMEHA!"

And with a humongous burst of power, the world was enveloped in a light that outshone the sun once again.

At the same time, in Amestris, Edward and Envy's deconstruction attacks collided with each other. Oddly, as they touched, nothing happened but a large cloud of blue sparks and a few electrical bursts-like static.

"What the hell?…" Edward remarks in pure shock.

"Damn it, why aren't you dead human!?" Envy announces in confusion.

To answer your question readers, their energies cancelled each other out, as they were both exactly out of phase with each other.

However, their attacks did have some effect.

Their energies created a ripple through reality, snaking its way across time and space instantaneously. And of all places, had to head toward the universe filled with the most active energy at the moment; none other than the Dragon Ball Z universe.

That is what now causes this to happen.

**Edward Elric**

As we stood there gawking at how both of us were unharmed by each others move, something terrible happened.

Suddenly, a burst of white light filled the area, brighter than a thousand suns, and the world exploded. Blood filling my eyes as the vessels behind them burst from the pressure wave of the blast.

As my ears rang, and my brain began to shut down, I couldn't help but realize, "Damn…things always backfire when you need them to work most" And I blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2: The Day Everything Changed

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 2: The Day Everything Changed**

**Son Goku**

When our energies collided, I was worried we might blow apart the arena; thankfully it held, and there was merely a mile wide, 3000 foot deep crater which we now stood in.

"(Pant) Good one Vegeta, I'm impressed man" I say as I take a moment to catch my breath, before my energy instantly rebounds back to normal; I was still getting used to the amount of sheer power SS12 held.

"Same to you Kakarot (Pant) you're still as good as ever" Vegeta says as he catches his breath as well.

Suddenly, My senses picked up something familiar.

"Vegeta…do you feel that?" I ask, my tone graven with realization.

"Yes…I do…" Vegeta replies.

As we focuses are senses to make sure we weren't dealing with a case of mistaken identity, the truth revealed itself to be what we feared.

"A SPATIAL TEAR!" we both yell in alarm.

Adam had warned us what could happen if a Spatial Tear wasn't stabilized and someone or something was caught in it. I could hear my son's voice in my head even now.

"Goku, Spatial Tears are extremely unstable wormholes, created randomly by a collision of pure energy. For at any moment, it could collapse into a black hole, and kill almost any being trapped inside. If you ever see one formed, you must fire a pulsed burst of Ki into it, to force it collapse, but only once you are sure there is no one inside, or near it" Adam's voice says in my head.

As we looked above us, there was a glowing portal, that flickered erratically.

"Vegeta, can you sense anything beyond the portal?" I ask as I stare at the wild blue tear in space and time.

"Barely anything, probably an insect or small animal" Vegeta comments.

As I concentrated my Ki sense, I realized how wrong Vegeta was.

"No…NO IT'S A PERSON-A HUMAN! VEGETA WE HAVE TO SAVE HIM!" I scream as I take flight.

"KAKAROT! Be reasonable, you'll be crushed if you go into there and it collapses; don't be a Baka!" Vegeta yells angrily.

"Not if I zip in and out faster than light, and you know we can easily surpass the speed of light in our SS12 state" I retort.

"But what if it collapses and you end up trapped in another universe or dimension? Use your head Kakarot!" Vegeta screams.

I thought for a moment about what Vegeta was saying. But then I remembered what Adam told me about being a true Christian.

"Remember the Good Samaritan Goku; even a kind stranger can do incalculable good" my son states as the memory echoes in my head.

"I'm not using my head Vegeta, I'm using my heart!" I reply back forcefully.

Without a second thought, I flew through the portal, and passed through the light.

As I went through, I saw a strange light all around, and a strange figure approached me.

"You're an interesting one aren't you? Neither Human nor Homunculi…what are you?" the white faceless figure asks, his tone showing incredible surprise.

"I don't have time for this! There is someone dying on the other side of this portal-OUT OF MY WAY!" I scream, shoving the being aside. Within moments, I landed on solid ground again.

The scene that lay before me was one of minor devastation (By Saiyan standards) but I knew to humans it was a disaster.

"Whoa…wonder what happened here?" I ask myself as I look around.

Seeing there wasn't anyone standing in the immediate vicinity, I looked on the ground. Then at my foot, I saw a young boy in his mid teens with long blonde hair in a ponytail.

"GOOD LORD! He's almost dead" I yell in shock.

As I picked up his body, and began to fly back through the portal, I realized a few things.

"Wow…he has 2 artificial limbs; poor kid, he must have had one hell of an accident to need those" I say to myself out loud as I head for the other side of the portal.

However, before I could finish traversing the wormhole, the white figure appeared before me again.

"Hold on! Where do you think you're going with this inhabitant of Amestris sir?" he asks firmly.

"I'm taking him back to my world for healing, so I can save him from death" I answer stoutly.

"And what makes you think you can just ignore God mortal?" the white figure says angrily, as his face morphs to match my own.

Upon seeing his seriousness, I was severely angered.

"YOU'RE NO GOD! I KNOW THE REAL GOD-AND HES A HELL OF A LOT BETTER THAN YOU! AND MORE POWERFUL THAN I AM BY INFINITY! SO YOU BEST SHUT YOUR PIE HOLE YOU FUCKING PROUD BLASPHEMER!" I roar.

The white figure's copy of my face instantly vanished, and he stood aside.

"You're quite observant, I' am not God; you know the truth beyond the truth-I merely work for God in the Universe you're taking this boy from. Go ahead, I cannot stop you, and you have earned the right to do this. Before you go-may I ask your name please?" the glowing figure asks.

"Goku, Son Goku" I reply shortly.

"And I go by many names. But many refer to me simply as-The Truth" the white figure says as I prepare to pass through the other side of the portal.

As I stepped down onto the ground of the Arena, the portal suddenly shut off by itself.

"Kakarot, did you do that?" Vegeta asks as he nods toward the space where the portal used to be.

"No-I guess The Truth did" I reply, as I divert my gaze down to the boy I now held.

"You were right Kakarot, he's in terrible shape-we'd better get him to Dende right away" Vegeta remarks.

With that, we used Instantaneous Movement and popped up to the Lookout.

**Dende**

As I finished talking to Popo about how nice the latest Church the humans had built by a river, Goku and Vegeta appeared before us in a flash.

"(GASP) oh! Goku, Vegeta-its just you two. (Pant) I'm still getting used to that teleporting, so take it easy, I almost had a heart attack" Popo gasps, trying to regain his composure.

"Long story, and we can tell you later-but this boy needs healing now Dende!" Goku yells, his tone indicating total need for immediate healing for the boy.

"I understand Goku, just put him down and I'll work my magic" I reply as I kneel down, and open my palms.

As I saw the boy, I noticed the injuries, and how odd two of his limbs were.

"Mechanical limbs…well I can't heal those, but I can fix the rest of him up" I say cheerfully as I begin to expose the boy to the healing energy I so often used.

As it pulsated and glowed, his injuries vanished, and the scuffs on his skin disappeared.

"There, that should do it" I say proudly.

However, in an instant, his injuries reappeared.

"But…but that's impossible! YOU'VE HEALED ME BEFORE AS I WAS NEAR DEATH!" Vegeta screams.

"I know, that's why this doesn't make any sense" I say as I notice the resurgent wounds.

"Maybe it has to do with the nature of his injuries and the properties of physics from the universe he came from" Goku suggests.

"Well there is always one person who can heal anything short of a broken heart or soul no matter what the physics are" Popo interjects thoughtfully.

As we all looked at each other, we said the same thing each other was thinking simultaneously, "PSYAGON!"

**Son Adam/Psyagon**

It was just another peaceful day, as I held my beloved wife Katie in my arms. Her soft brown hair flowing in the wind as we hovered in the clouds where my daughter Katherine was currently flitting around with glee.

The peace was suddenly interrupted when I heard an all too familiar psychic alert from my father.

"Son, we have a situation" Goku says gravely.

I nodded instantly, knowing Goku never joked about such things.

"We're on our way dad" I say out loud and telepathically at the same time.

"Darling, we've got a situation, get Katherine and meet me at the Lookout" I say as I kiss my wife quickly before warping away.

As I arrived on the Lookout, I glanced around and found my father and Vegeta standing with Dende and Mr. Popo a mere 300 feet away. With incalculable speed, I burst right next to them.

"Hey dad, saved another one from certain death eh?" I smile as I throw my arm around his shoulder.

"Yeah, but this one is different son" he reply, his smile changing to a serious gaze as he stares down at the boy again.

"Yes Adam, when I tried to heal him-the injuries just came back in an moment; it was like they magically un-healed" Dende explains.

I kneeled down to get a better look at the boy Goku had rescued. I was struggling to identify him-when I noticed 2 artificial limbs; a robotic right arm and left leg.

In an instant, I was shocked with the realization of who this boy was.

"GOKU! Have you any idea who you just rescued!" I shout in surprise.

"No, I don't; who did I save?" he asks with innocent inquisition.

At that moment, Katie appeared with Katherine beside me.

"Dad, this is Edward Elric-THE FULL METAL ALCHEMIST!" I yell with excitement and realization.

Katie instantly gasped and I snapped my fingers to place Edward within a life support barrier.

"Dad, we gotta get the others up here now" I say, realizing this was big.

Within a matter of minutes, all our closest friends had arrived up to the Lookout, wondering what the big news is.

**Naruto Uzumaki**

When I got the call, I knew we had to get to the Lookout post-haste, so Sakura and I immediately teleported with our only son, Ulrich.

"So Adam, what's so important that you have to drag us all up here right now?" Talos asks as he holds his wife Ellen in his arms.

"Yeah, me and the missus had plans man" Kiba says as he holds Hinata close too.

"Guys, Adam never jokes with us-whatever this is, it is undoubtedly important" Sango rebukes as she holds Miroku's hands.

"Yeah, Adam doesn't screw with us" I add defensively as I hold my beloved Sakura in my arms, our oldest son Ulrich standing beside us.

"My fellow friends, and author friends especially, you will be amazed to hear this; my father, he rescued…EDWARD ELRIC!" Adam announces excitedly as a floating blue energy barrier flew out into full view for all to see.

As soon as the name rang out, the whole assembly of Author's broke into shock and shouts of amazement as they looked at the boy inside the sphere.

"Edward Elric…_THE_ Full Metal Alchemist!" Meegan squeals as she holds Daniel.

"No way…so the FMA universe does exist" Sakuya comments, as she stands with Sesshomaru.

"Yes, but some very disturbing things have come to my attention about the universe that this Edward came from" Adam says as the barrier holding the boy hovers before us.

"This Edward was fighting the Homunculi, got knocked out, and then they blew up the Fifth Laboratory and saved Ed for his need to be used in the Sacrifice; but then, Ed's anger at what they had done to his much needed clues and evidence for the Philosopher's Stone snapped him out of his unconsciousness, and allowed him to fight the Homunculi with his damaged automail arm for a while longer" Adam explains.

"So…what happened during the fight?" I speak up, becoming just as curious.

"Apparently, Edward was fighting the Homunculi known as Envy, at the same time Goku and Vegeta were fighting each other here. When Edward and Envy used their Destruction Alchemy move on each other, it was at the same time Goku and Vegeta's Ki attacks collided with each other. This caused a Reality Ripple from the FMA universe, to the DBZ universe. Edward and Envy's moves cancelled each other out and did no damage to either member of the opposing party, but they allowed the blast wave from Goku and Vegeta's attacks to trace their way through time and space to create a spatial distortion or tear, linking the two universes temporarily. The blast wave from Goku and Vegeta's attacks had been weakened because most of its energy was spent creating the portal, but the remaining energy must have blown through the spatial portal that formed, and caused a tremendous explosion. Nearly killing poor Edward here" Adam explains calmly.

"But that still doesn't explain why my powers couldn't heal Edward; why did his injuries return even after I fixed him?" Dende inquires with curiosity.

"Because for some reason, the physics of Edward's body are under the effect of the Law of Equivalent Exchange" Adam replies.

Upon hearing the phrase, I was immediately perplexed.

"Adam…what's Equivalent Exchange?" I state with curiosity.

Upon turning to face me, he opened up his palm, and a flash of blue light appeared, then changed to a holographic display.

"You know what this is right?" Adam asks as he holds the glowing display of a sphere studded with smaller ones orbiting it, surrounding a cluster of spheres in the middle.

"Yeah, basic Carbon atom-what's so important about that; what's it got to do with the Equivalent Exchange stuff?" I reply dully, not the least bit interested.

"It has everything to do with!" Adam snaps, pointing out that my response to the Carbon atom was tactless and short sighted.

"Law of Conservation of Mass and Energy, Law of Equivalent Exchange…the two are essentially the same thing" Adam goes on.

I stared at him cluelessly, not seeing the connection between physics and Equivalent Exchange.

"(Sigh) Still dense like you were all those years ago I see; alright-Daniel, would you care to recite the Law of Equivalent Exchange for our friend Naruto?" Adam continues with an annoyed tone.

Immediately, Daniel picked up where Adam had left off and clapped his hands.

"Alchemy: the science of understanding, deconstructing, and reconstructing matter. However, it is not an all-powerful art; it is impossible to create something out of nothing. If one wishes to obtain something, something of equal value must be given. This is the Law of Equivalent Exchange, the basis of all alchemy" Daniel states in a textbook fashion.

"Matter, Energy, Life, Spirit, Soul; Equivalent Exchange dictates that one is all, and all is one. For most mortals, one cannot get something tangible for nothing, something else of equal value must be given, a gram of matter gets you a gram of matter, just in another form" Adam continues.

Goku and Vegeta then dropped out of SS12 in surprise.

"Is there anything else to that law?" Vegeta asks, his tone indicating he suspects that he knew there was more.

"In accordance with this law, there is a taboo among alchemists: human transmutation is strictly forbidden - for what could equal the value of a human soul…?" Daniel adds, his tone eerie and unsettling.

"No kidding; but if that's the case-then why are we able to do so many fantastic things, even outright defy the Law of Equivalent Exchange?" Sakuya comments.

"Hasn't it sunk in after all these years?" I blurt out, amazed at how blind she was to the obvious.

"Yeah, our powers work outside the laws of physics; practically the only limit to the powers Reality Warping allows, is your own imagination" Meegan explains.

"Which means that is what I shall be using to fix Edward, after a quick study of his entire physiology with my Omnigon" Adam states, as his eyes glow an intense ethereal golden shade.

**Son Adam/Psyagon**

As my mystical gaze penetrated into Edward's form, down to the cellular and atomic structure, I marveled at how hardy the fellow was for a mere human-and remembered how I was like him in a way for a short time.

However, my trip down memory lane was cut short as I deepened my gaze to into the genetic level when I noticed something terrible regarding his .

"Oh my Lord…guys…there is something seriously wrong with Edward" I say, as I realize I would have my work cut out for me on fixing him up.

"What's wrong with him dear?" Katie asks as she holds my hands.

"Its his DNA…its become damaged from the explosion he endured" I say gravely.

"What does that mean?" Luffy asks as he walks over to look at Edward's body inside the barrier.

"It means that his body's very composition has been harmed from the energies of the blast that went through the portal into his universe Luffy" my daughter Katherine explains as she puts a hand on his shoulder.

"Which means there is only one way to repair him reliably" I say as I kneel down and disperse the barrier.

"I have to destroy him, then reconstruct him as another species-as a Saiyan" I state solemnly.

Upon hearing this, many people began to oppose my decision.

"Adam, the kid has been through enough; he lost his mother, and nearly his brother-he doesn't need more crap to deal with man" Daniel states angrily.

Immediately, Vegeta choke-gripped Daniel and slammed him into the ground in rage.

"YOU'VE GOT SOME NERVE CALLING OUR SPECIES CRAP YOU INGRATE!" Vegeta bellows with pure wrath.

"(Gagging) But he's just a kid, and he already has enough to deal with" Daniel argues.

"We were kids when we became Saiyans too you dummy" Meegan says as she grips Vegeta's hand and applies a crushing grip, causing a harsh crack to resound from Vegeta's wrist.

"GAAHHHHHHH! BAKA ONNA, YOU COULD HAVE JUST ASKED ME TO LET GO!" Vegeta complains as he rubs his sore wrist.

"Anyways…It doesn't matter what you all think; it's the only safe way to save Edward-so I'm turning him into a Saiyan" I continue flatly.

With a burst of golden light, I shoot a beam of identical color into Edward's chest.

In seconds, his entire body began to glow the same golden color, as it became filled with pure energy.

"Just a few more seconds" I say as the energy continues to fill Edward's still form.

After a few more moments, his body now glowed golden throughout his entirety, even beneath his skin and inside.

Then, with an mighty pop, he exploded into glittering golden dust.

"(Gasp) whoa…" my daughter says in awe, as the dust of Ed floats all around us.

With a twirl of my hands, I forced Ed's dust to coalesce back into an orb.

"Now, I'll keep this recorded so Edward won't be able to deny what I did" I say as I point to the tripod camera beside me that I'd made before I began the procedure.

Everyone looked at me with amazement, as they hadn't been paying attention, or they would have noticed the subtle air flickers when the camera began to appear when I made it.

Now the orb of Ed's mass was collected into a single area, so I began the next step; I let his dust flow back into the shape of his body.

"Now for the final step; altering his DNA" I say as I snap my fingers.

With that, Ed's dust avatar lurched, as if struck by lightning. Then began to solidify and become a form of flesh and blood again.

The dust slowly changed back to skin, bone, and organs, like they were being poured into a mold.

"Aaahhhhhh…" Ulrich sighs with awe as the transformation nears completion.

The last physical parts to appear, were flesh versions of Ed's right arm, and left leg, and a new golden blonde saiyan tail.

"Wow…is he…a Saiyan now?" Inuyasha says as he inches closer.

"See for yourself man" I reply confidently.

With a few sniffs, he was convinced.

"Yep, he's the real deal alright; nice work man" Inuyasha compliments as he pats my back.

"I strive for perfect transformations every time; wouldn't want anything to go wrong now would we?" I chuckle.

With that, Goku and I both broke out into a hearty laugh.

"(Laughter trails off to a sigh) well, we'd better get him to a comfy bed so he can fully recover; Katie dear, would you mind making a Tempur Pedic Foam Memory bed for our boy Edward here?" I ask my wife sweetly as I gently levitate Edward.

"Of course, the dear child definitely needs rest" Katie says as she nods her head, and a floating bed appears.

With that, I tenderly placed the now sleeping Edward onto the bed.

"Now just for the heck of it, I think I'll use Alchemy to make a hut over Edward's bed" I say as I clap my hands together, causing a flash of blue light.

Upon putting my hands to the tiles of the Lookout, they erupted upward and reformed into a white dome shaped hut directly over Edward's bed.

"Well that was pretty fun; I'd forgotten what its like to obey the laws of physics" I laugh.

"Ok everyone, time to let the boy sleep; you can all ask him questions once he wakes up" Katie says as she gently pushes my dad and Luffy away from the hut door.

As I began to levitate away toward the Lookout edge, I couldn't help but think, "Edward…you're about to experience an entirely new world; I hope you can handle it"

**Edward Elric**

As I woke up, It felt like the weather had changed, and it was cooler.

"(Yawn) well looks like whatever that explosion was didn't have enough kick in it to take the Full Metal Alchemist-dow-dow-de-du-huh!" I begin, cutting myself short as I swing my right arm toward my field of vision, and notice the change.

"I-Impossible…could it really be…my own arm?" I say to myself, as I gaze at what my right arm had become.

Then I looked down at my left leg, and saw it too was flesh and blood as well.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH; WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" I scream in alarm.


	3. Chapter 3: There is a God?

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 3: There is a God?**

**Edward Elric**

Everything was all wrong; the surrounding, the air, the atmosphere, everything.

"What the hell is going on-where am I?" I say out loud as I stand up and admire my new limbs.

"How could my limbs just grow back like…" I begin, then trail off as I notice something around my waist.

I grabbed it, and felt really weak all of a sudden. Then when I trailed to where it was attached, my face nearly fell off.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME!?" I bellow with horror.

Suddenly, the door opened and a very concerned figure burst in.

"What's going on, is everything ok Edward?" the man asks kindly.

"No, I'm not ok; something very freaky is going on and…how do you know my name?" I ask intensely, my suspicion growing with each passing moment.

Immediately, the man began to sweat and rubbed the back of his head.

"Well…uh…that's kinda hard to explain, it's a long story" the man says hesitantly.

I eyed him with the greatest of scrutiny, until I noticed how much his hair looked like…

"Its…you!" I say as I realize who the man really was.

"Huh? What are you talking about?" the man asks, with a hurt tone in his voice.

"YOU BASTARD! YOU DESTROYED IMPORTANT EVIDENCE ABOUT THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE!" I scream with rage.

Immediately, I clapped my hands, then placed them on the floor and transmuted a naginata pole from the materials.

"DIE YOU ASSHOLE!" I scream as I thrust the spear tip at his face.

Suddenly, I felt the pole's motion stop. Then I realized that he had stopped it-with a pinching motion!

"Calm down Edward, I'm not…whoever you think I' am" the man says as he twists his fingers, and disarms me effortlessly.

Upon seeing this, I nearly threw up with shock.

"Wha…how…-" I stutter, totally baffled by how he had done that.

After several moments of intense silence, I snapped out of my daze and said, "HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT!?"

Suddenly, the man looked at me like I'd never seen a feat such as his performed before and replied, "What, this?"

Then, he flipped the pole around like it was a chain between his fingers, then did a quadruple flip and caught it in his fingers again.

"Yeah, I could barely see you move; (Growl) must be a new trick you got by using your power-_Envy_" I say with contempt.

With no warning, I clapped my hands again and put them on the ground.

As I had hoped, he expected me to make another weapon-but he was in for a surprise.

From right beneath his chin, a gargantuan human sized fist slammed an uppercut square beneath his jaw, and sent him flying through the roof.

**Son Goku**

Man, I knew that the kid was tough-but I hadn't expected anything like this. He had no advanced martial-arts training, no Ki powers, and no inherent biological abilities of extreme degree; but his ability to do Alchemy without the so called "Transmutation Circles"…this was as incredible as Reality Warping in many ways.

"Kakarot,! What's going on here?" Vegeta yells as he flies over to me.

"Its Ed…he didn't take my arrival too well, he thinks _I'm_ a bad guy" I reply as I rub my chin momentarily.

Upon hearing this, Vegeta began to laugh, and laugh, and laugh.

"BWA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! OH MY GOSH! THAT'S THE FIRST TIME ANYONE HAS EVER THOUGHT YOU WERE EVIL!" Vegeta howls with laughter.

Suddenly, the entire hut began to rumble.

"Uh…Vegeta…I think we need to focus on the angry kid" I say, concern filling my voice.

"You have GOT to be kidding me Kakarot; you faced a demon just 20 years ago, and now you're telling me that the kid is scary!?" Vegeta bellows.

Suddenly, 20 giant stone fists erupted from beneath us, knocking us square in our chops multiple times, and then to our feet.

"Yeah-CAUSE HE'S INSANE!" I scream back as I get up and show the small bruises, indicating how dangerous the kid is if you let your guard down.

As another stone fist came us, Vegeta smashed it to smithereens.

"Then we'll just have to reign him in Kakarot" Vegeta smirks.

**Edward Elric**

I was astounded, I'd never seen anyone ever break the giant stone formations I'd attacked with.

"Damn…this guy is strong, but there's no way he'll be able to break out of this" I say to myself as I clap my hands.

With that, I sat down to fake them out, make it seem I had surrendered instead of using my powers.

Then, as I used my hands to slow my slump onto the tiles, I sent my power through them.

Without warning, the man with the spiked hairdo was swallowed up by the now volcanic ash ground in nanoseconds; thus giving me the perfect opening to transmute the ground back into solid tile again.

"HA! Where is your big scary friend now tough guy!?" I gloat, making sure he got as steamed as possible for besting his short friend.

However, just when it seemed I'd gotten the upper hand, the ground began to rumble violently.

"You REAALLLLLY shouldn't have done that Edward" Envy says with concern.

Wait a minute-CONCERN!? What the hell was Envy showing concern for? HE WANTED TO KILL ME!

However, my thoughts were interrupted as the ground began to rumble even more, and the area where the short man had sunken in began to bulge upward like a pimple.

With a tremendous explosion of debris, he reappeared-glowing with a golden aura and levitating!

"YOU HALFASSED PUNK! FEEL MY WRATH!" the man thunders with rage, causing me to be swept off my feet as a sudden sonic pressure wave washes across the landscape.

But…that's impossible…no one can scream that loud…not even me or Winry.

However, what he began to do next made my blood run cold.

He held his hand out in front, palm first-right at me.

Then, it began to glow! Light started to form an intensely bright orb in his grasp!

"YOU TRIED TO KILL ME YOU INGRATEFUL SHIT! NOW PREPARE TO DIE!" the man bellows.

With no further warning, the orb was released, causing the air to shimmer in its wake.

I desperately tried to form stone walls to halt its advance, but even after 20 walls, it just kept coming at me; fortunately it appeared to have been released at a moderately slow pace, giving me the chance to outrun it. Seemed this guy liked to toy with his opponents.

"VEGETA NOOOOOOO!" Envy screams as he suddenly flashes, and becomes Golden as well. Another thing I noticed, was that both of them had Golden hair and Cyan eyes.

Just before the blast hit me, Envy knocked it into the sky with a double handed fist.

After traveling several miles, it detonated! With more light than a whole city block of TNT and Dynamite-IMPOSSIBLE!

**Vegeta Briefs**

Just as my blast was about to hit the boy, Kakarot ran in front of it and knocked it away; typical.

"VEGETA! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR DAMN MIND!?" Kakarot bellows.

"BLAST IT YOU DUMB IMBECILE! DIDN'T YOU SEE THE LOOK IN HIS EYES!? HE WAS FULL INTENT ON KILLING THE BOTH OF US!" I scream back.

"AND THAT JUSTIFIES KILLING A DEFENSELESS YOUNG BOY WHO HASN'T EVEN GROWN UP YET!?" Kakarot retorts.

Immediately, the boy started looking funny and thundered, "HOW DARE YOU SAY I'M LITTLE! COME SAY THAT TO MY FACE I DARE YA!"

"Pipe it junior, the grown-ups are having a conversation here" I reply with an irritated tone.

However, ignoring him turned out to be a bad choice, as we both suddenly found ourselves trapped within two fists of metal.

"Alright talk you two; I WANT ANSWERS YOU BASTARDS!" he screams.

**Son Goku**

Things were getting out of hand, I knew at this rate Dende would be awakened from his weekly nap, and he needed his rest to keep an eye on the world. So I decided it was time to talk.

"Edward, please listen to me" I pleaded, making my voice as gentle as possible.

Upon hearing this, Edward nearly screamed again.

"LISTEN TO YOU!? WHAT SO YOU CAN TRICK ME AGAIN YOU SHAPE-SHIFTING FREAK!?" Edward shouts angrily.

"HA! A Shape-Shifter-please; Kakarot couldn't pull that off even if he had the ability to do so, he's a terrible faker-always has been" Vegeta comments dumbly.

"HA! Like I'm gonna listen to an alchemic abomination who shoots explosive light bombs from his hands" Edward huffs as he folds his arms and turns his face away from Vegeta.

With a scarily intense growl, Vegeta's eyes glowed yellow and he shoot a sharp burst of Ki into Edward's butt.

"YIIIIII-YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! MY ASS IS ON FIRE!" Edward wails as he runs around in pain.

"See? Binding us was pointless for two reasons; that was the first-" Vegeta begins.

Then with an effortless grunt, he bulged his muscles, and his Ki flared, melting the metal fist that had contained him.

"Haaaa ho hooooo" Edward wheezes with horror as the molten remains of his offensive metal limb pooled around Vegeta's boots with no ill-effect on him whatsoever.

"This is the second" Vegeta says coolly.

In a flash, he appeared behind Edward and restrained him by his arms, holding them as far apart as possible to prevent him from using Alchemy.

"PUT ME DOWN YOU BASTARD OR YOU'LL BE SORRY!" Edward bellows.

"(Chuckle) Yeah, I don't think so shorty" Vegeta taunts.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SHORT!? YOU'RE NOT MUCH TALLER THAN ME!" Edward whines angrily.

"Calm down, both of you!" I yell calmly, but firmly.

Immediately, they stopped-sensing the subtle threatening tone of my voice.

"Alright Edward, tell me who you think I' am-cause my name is Son Goku, and I'm as far from evil as stones are from clouds" I state authoritatively.

"You're a shape-shifter called Envy, a member of the ouroboros; why the hell should I believe a word you say!?" Edward argues fervently.

"Cause I'm gonna prove I'm not a shape-shifter or the person you think I' am" I state plainly.

With that, Edward stared at me in disbelief.

"Vegeta, do it" I order my friend.

"(Sigh) As you wish mighty Saiyan warrior" he says with an annoyed tone.

With that, he shoot another beam from his eyes, and severed my left arm.

"Yeah, big deal, in a few moments your arm is gonna just regenerate and…WHAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! ITS NOT REGROWING!" Edward shrieks with fright.

**Edward Elric**

I was 100 percent sure that this guy was the same one I'd fought earlier before the explosion and before I arrived here.

But then, he willingly had his own arm blown off! And to top it all off, it didn't regenerate!

"But…you…your arm…" I begin, trailing off as I stare at the cauterized bloody stump once again.

"But…if you're not a member of the Ouroboros then…who are you, and how do you know my name?" I ask, this time with apprehensive curiosity instead of anger.

"It's a VERY long story Edward" Goku says as he pulls a red satin pouch off his belt sash. Then popped a Golden bean into his mouth and began to crunch it.

Within seconds of swallowing it, the area around his elbow stump began to boil and bubble as though there was something beneath it.

Then, defying all logic-A FULLY FORMED ARM BURST OUT GOOD AS NEW!

"AAAAHHHHHHH! WHAT DID YOU JUST DO!?" I scream with pure bafflement.

"I ate a Golden Senzu bean, most marvelous food in this universe, and probably any one there is" Goku says calmly as he rotates his new arm at the shoulder joint in a test of flexibility.

"Ahhhh, see-good as new" he states with a smile as he flexes it gleefully.

I was about to say something, when I remembered his comment relating to "other universes".

"What do you mean by that, by "universes" what's that supposed to mean Goku?" I ask calmly.

"Kinda hard to explain in a simple way, perhaps we should wait on my son to come here and explain" Goku replies sheepishly.

"YOU ARROGANT JERK! I'M A CERTIFIED STATE ALCHEMIST-A FREAKIN GENIUS! JUST TRY ME!" I bellow; the insult to my intelligence stinging just as badly as those regarding my height.

**Son Goku**

I realized he wasn't going to rest until he got the answers he needed. But I knew I was definitely not the one to give them to him, as I was sure he still had doubts about my trustworthiness since he thought I was a villain known as Envy.

"Well I'm afraid I can't tell you what you want to know Edward, I'm not really qualified to explain" I apologize.

"(Groan) Figures, I knew you weren't too bright" Edward complains.

"(Growl) I'm going to ignore that comment since I have such a good disposition" I say as I focus on continuing where I left off.

"However, though I do not know how to explain the other universes issue to you, I know someone who can; my eldest son Adam" I say cheerily.

"But Adam isn't here, he went back with his wife and daughter for family time Kakarot" Vegeta argues.

With no effort at all, I flexed my muscles and powered up, snapping the metal fist encasing me like a twig.

"AAAHHHHHHH" Edward moans, his face looking like he had seen a ghost.

"That's why we raise our power levels Vegeta, Adam and the others are sure to come here if we transform into Super Saiyan 3" I reply.

"We'd better be careful then, the Lookout is nowhere near as stable as the arena continent" Vegeta warns.

"No kidding" I say as I begin to power up.

**Edward Elric**

When they said Super Saiyan 3, I became very curious.

"Hold on, what's this "Super Saiyan" stuff?" I start, until the ground begins to rumble.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Goku and Vegeta scream, as the ground begins to rumble violently, more so than before in fact!

Then, the wind picked up to hurricane strength, and I almost lost my footing.

To prevent that, I clapped my hands and transmuted some poles with handles to hang onto.

Soon, the wind became even more powerful, and their respective golden auras around them began to look more like a wild fire.

Eventually, the wind became so powerful, I had to transmute a pair of chains to put around my ankles because I couldn't keep my grip.

Then, the entire area rumbled, and a huge series of fissures spread out from where they stood. Unfortunately, some headed right for me!

The cracks buckled the area where the poles I'd transmuted, and caused them to loosen, and fly out-WITH ME CHAINED TO THEM!

"AAAAAAAAAHHH!" I howl, as I am blown across the landscape.

But even worse, after a few thousand feet, I realized this whole area I had been at wasn't merely a fancy compound; IT WAS IN THE SKY!

Then, I was blown over the edge-AND I WAS FALLING BACK TO EARTH NOW!

"OOOOOOOHHHHHH SHIIIIITT!" I scream, as I begin to plummet to my death.

However, several seconds after my plummet began, I felt my momentum suddenly drop to zero; I'd stopped falling!

"Whoa…what the…" I say, as I trail off into amazement and speechlessness.

Suddenly, I felt myself begin to float back up again. Within seconds, I was back on the solid white tiles of the so called "Lookout".

I realized that some invisible force had levitated me upward, something…unnatural.

"Vegeta, I knew Edward would get on your nerves; but hell, that doesn't justify you killing him" a new voice states, filled with slight anger, but so soothing at the same time.

**Son Adam/Psyagon**

I had been flying around with my wife and daughter again, but then Goku and Vegeta's power levels went from high, to unbelievable for ordinary days.

In a flash, I warped space and zipped over to the Lookout. When I saw that Edward was falling over the edge, I quickly used my Psychokinesis and saved his butt from sure death.

"So, anyone care to tell me why Edward was blown off the edge and nearly killed?" I ask flatly.

"It was my fault son, I didn't make sure that we controlled our ascension to Super Saiyan 3 well enough; we generated too much power and wind from our transformation. We're sorry about that Edward" Goku says as he apologizes to Edward.

Over to the side, Edward was having a mental breakdown and whimpering like a beaten cat.

"Um…I think he needs medical attention son" Goku says calmly.

"Definitely" I reply as I float over to Edward and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Edward, please calm down-no one is going to hurt you" I explain in my most soothing velvety voice.

Almost immediately, his expression softened a little, and he stopped whimpering, though he was still crying and filled with pure terror.

"Hey-" I say as I gently grasp his chin and direct his eyes into mine so he can see how soft my expression is.

"-Its ok Edward" I continue, as I throw him into a soft hug and pat his back.

"Its ok" I whisper as I pat his head, calming him down as I emit golden energy of my own calmness into him at the same time.

After several minutes, the glazed expression coating Edward's eyes vanished, and he came to his senses.

"W-who…who are you?" Edward asks timidly, yet also with curiosity.

"I'm known by many names, my two most common are The Divine Saiyan Psyagon, and my real name-Son Adam" I reply softly.

"A-Are y-you a god?" Edward asks timidly.

"No, but I know the real one-and I work for him" I answer gently, giving him one last hug.

Immediately, Edward remembered seeing me instilling the golden energy that helped him calm down, I saw the realization in his eyes.

"It was you wasn't it; you saved me from dying and restored my body" Edward whispers in a monotone.

"Yes, that is correct Edward" I reply.

With a soft whine of repent, and a sigh of relief, Edward said, "So…maybe there really is a god of sorts after all"


	4. Chapter 4: The Truth Revealed

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 4: The Truth Revealed**

**Edward Elric**

Upon fully recovering from my stupor after nearly dying, I realized a few things; 1-I had been hugged! AND I HUGGED BACK! 2-I had cried, like a baby! And 3-I'D ADMITTED THERE WAS A GOD!

"Di-did all that really just happen; is all of this real?" I ask hesitantly, not sure I wanted to know the answer.

"Every moment, all real" Vegeta says irritably.

"Yeah, and my name is NOT Envy, its Goku, Son Goku; and the guy who saved your life is my eldest son-Adam" Goku says softly.

"Yes, and don't be ashamed; its actually comforting knowing that someone bigger than you has things under control that are beyond your own" Adam says as he places a hand on my shoulder.

"Where is my brother? And Winry, and the others?" I start out, trying to remain calm.

Then I remembered earlier about nearly falling, and sprinted over to the edge to make double sure I hadn't been hallucinating and imagined the whole ordeal.

"AND WHERE THE HELL ARE WE!" I scream frantically.

"Calm down, we'll explain everything-just cool it Ed" Goku says gently as he pulls me gently away from the edge.

"Perhaps I should show him in the most simple way I know of, through his own anime show" Adam says calmly.

Suddenly, I felt a beam of some kind hit me in the forehead. I was about to scream and ask what the hell he did that for, but then I started to see images of…me; it was exactly the way the information had been shot into my brain like when I crossed over the gate and looked into the truth, only…it didn't hurt.

After several minutes, the blue beam dissipated and the knowledge stream ceased…but it left me wondering.

"Guys…am I…real?" I say meekly, afraid of the answer.

"As real as we are Edward, don't ever doubt that" Adam says as he pats my head softly.

"So…I'm not the figment of some cartoonist's imagination then?" I ask hopefully.

"No, they think you're fictional though; and for a while I thought your universe might be fictional as well, but you've proved me wrong Edward" Adam says with a smile.

"Thanks, I needed that man; so what's up with your dad and his friend, they on steroids made from Philosopher's Stones?" I ask as I point to them, indicating the crazy hair and energy auras.

With an angered growl, Vegeta snapped back, "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THIS IS MY POWER AND MINE ALONE! I DIDN'T GET IT WITH THE HELP OF A PETTY MAGIC STONE-I BUSTED MY ASS EARNING IT!"

I immediately recoiled, seeing Vegeta's aura flare meant danger.

"Calm down, I'm used to things being governed by Alchemy-gimme a break pal" I say sheepishly.

"You want to know why their hair is so big, and why they glow Edward?" Adam asks politely.

"YES-TELL ME! I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING THAT POWERFUL BEFORE!" I yell excitedly, hoping this might help me get my brother's body back.

Suddenly, Adam held his palm in front of me, and an orb of light appeared-LIKE VEGETA'S!

"(Shrill scream of terror) THE LIGHT OF DEATH! GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!" I shout in fear, knowing how powerful those things were.

"This is why they glow Edward, its called Ki or Chi" Adam says calmly as he makes it vanish.

"Wait…you're saying that's THE Chi, the energy that flows through all living things and the world itself?" I ask with astonishment.

"Its also the same energy that has destroyed entire worlds too Edward" Adam replies solemnly.

"(Gasp)" I choke, nearly screaming.

"That blast Vegeta nearly killed you with earlier, that was just a pathetic parlor trick in showcasing the true destructive power of Ki" Adam continues.

"You mean…he wasn't even trying to kill me?" I wheeze shakily, every word trembling with fear.

"He wouldn't have even needed to use Ki, Vegeta could have ripped you to shreds before you could even blink-like a newspaper. Ki powers you up all over; its not just the ability to shoot energy blasts, it makes you stronger, faster, the power to fly, and even sharpens your reaction time" Goku adds.

"Really, by how much?" I inquire, now more interested than ever.

"Some argue the power one gains from unlocking their Ki is unfair; several years ago I had to fight legislation to ban the teachings of Ki in the universe I gained my humanity from. They argued God like power in the hands of mortals was unconscionable, and they were right. Some humans have the Ki potential to become planet destroyers" Adam explains, his tone solemn and serious.

I was in awe, Ki was really that powerful?

"What's more, Ki is your own Life Force energy; that means its not violating the law of equivalent exchange anyways-cause it comes from yourself" Adam continues.

"While no longer human, you will be able to learn Ki as well, and master it to an even greater level" Goku says cheerfully.

However, I wondered what he meant by that, till I looked at his waist, and saw a furry…pelt…no…A TAIL! A TAIL LIKE MINE!

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU TURN ME INTO YOU MONSTER!" I scream indignantly.

**Son Adam/Psyagon**

I realized things were spiraling out of control, so I had to feed Ed more knowledge before he hurt himself trying to hurt one of us.

"Edward, I'm gonna show you what Saiyans are, and that they are not anymore monsters than humans are" I say calmly, as I fire off my blue knowledge beam again.

After several minutes, I managed to calm him down from his fury induced rage.

"You mean…you're just like humans…only better?" Edward asks curiously.

"Physically…yes; but morally, Saiyans differ from each other as greatly as humans do from each other" I continue.

"We age slower, live longer, and live healthier and stronger than any human does" Vegeta says arrogantly.

"Are you saying humans are weak!" Edward bellows.

"Not at all, just strong in different ways; humans have strong hearts-many stronger than saiyans, at least the saiyans of old that is" Vegeta adds.

"Only a handful of the Saiyans before the near Xenocide of our race have returned from the otherworld and-MMMMPPHHH!" Goku begins, before Vegeta clamps his mouth shut with haste.

"YOU DUMMY, BUTTON IT! THAT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A SECRET!" Vegeta bellows.

But it was too late, immediately-Edward got nosy.

"Secret…what secret?" he asks quietly.

"Its ok guys, Ed needs to know about this" I say as I wave my hand to dismiss Vegeta's unnecessary actions.

"As there is a God, also there is resurrection" I say plainly.

**Edward Elric**

As I heard the words come out of his mouth, I felt all my perceptions on reality itself fall away.

"There is no Equivalent Exchange, no prevention of Human Transmutation, There is life after death, and there is a God Edward" Adam starts.

With a snap of his fingers, a fully formed copy appeared beside me, in the form of…ALPHONSE!

"I can make a human body…but I can't give it a soul, that's beyond even my power" Adam states, a monotone of seriousness filling his voice.

"(Gasp) You mean…you can bring Alphonse back to me?" I ask with bated breath, hoping to hear what I so desperately needed to hear for so long.

"Even better…I can teach you how to do it yourself" Adam says with a smile.

Upon hearing that, my stomach dropped.

"Adam, you can't be serious; how can a normal saiyan hope to learn reality warping?" Vegeta retorts.

"No-not true reality warping" Adam begins, as he sits up and claps his hands.

Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet became…CHOCOLATE!

"Merely, absolute, total knowledge of Alchemy and Alkahestry" Adam says calmly.

"YAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! IMPOSSIBLE; ONLY THE TRUTH KNOWS ALL ABOUT ALCHEMY!" I argue heatedly.

"Well when you have the power to access information via a supernatural source, you pick up _quite_ a few things Full Metal" Adam says, his tone sarcastic as he said my name.

"Or should I say…"Former" Full Metal, as the name doesn't quite suit you anymore Edward" Adam continues.

"As you are no longer a human, but now a member of an alien race known as a Saiyans, you are hereto codenamed henceforth as…"The Alchemic Saiyan" Adam says cheerfully.

I smiled, liking the ring my new codename had to it.

"I shall teach you all there is to know about Alchemy and Alkahestry, and even take you to the 4th Level of Super Saiyan, and show you how to not be weakened by your tail" Adam continues.

"(Gasp) You mean…my tail can be a weakness?" I ask in surprise.

"Yet also your greatest strength; without it, you cannot achieve the levels beyond the 3rd Level of Super Saiyan" Goku adds.

"Very well then, tell me how long this training will take" I say as I stand up as well.

"Three years" Adam states flatly.

With that, I fell on my back in shock.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS! I CAN'T STAY HERE THAT LONG-MY BROTHER NEEDS ME DAMN IT!" I scream angrily.

"Calm down Edward; I said the training would take three years, I didn't say we'd do it in three years-but in three days" Adam says calmly.

A second time, I fell on my back-but this time it was in stunned inability to understand.

"But…how's that even possible?" I debate, not having the foggiest idea how three years of training could be done in three days.

"With a special chamber connected to a dimension where the flow of time and many other factors, can be manipulated with a few twists of some dials, and pushes of some buttons" Adam smiles.

With that, I understood more or less, and eagerly said, "Well then, lets get started!"


	5. Chapter 5: The Three Years Part 1

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 5: The Three Years Part 1: It's A Long Road Ahead**

**Edward Elric**

After getting all worked up, I learned we weren't going to be entering the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a good 20 minutes, so I decided it was a good time to meet the person called Dende.

Adam gave me directions to his quarters, where I promptly knocked.

Almost instantly, the door opened and I was greeted with the Guardian of Earth.

"Hello there Edward, I knew you'd come to meet me sooner or later; its nice to finally meet you" he says kindly.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHH! YOU'RE SHORTER THAN ME!" I shout in amazement.

"Yeah, I'm a young Namek; so I haven't finished growing yet" he explains.

"Yeah, same here; I'm a young huma…well…Saiyan now, but yeah, I still have growing to do" I laugh, finally able to relax over my height.

"Yeah, I'm assuming Adam told you about the Dragon Balls and Dragon Emeralds too right?" Dende adds.

Upon hearing his mention of objects called Dragon Balls and Dragon Emeralds, I became extremely curious.

"No…he didn't tell me-what are they?" I inquire.

With that, Dende gasped, realizing he had spoken unnecessarily to me.

"Oh…forgive me…but if Adam hadn't already told you…then I believe it would be best if I kept my mouth shut; we can't let too many people find out about the Dragons Balls and Dragon Emeralds, their power is simply too great. So I must not speak of the matter anymore unless given permission" Dende replies.

"Damn! Alright, I guess I'll have to wait for Adam to spill it" I whine.

I turned to leave for the outside area, when Dende said, "Hey, why don't you contact King Kai, he's always listening out for Earth cause of the stuff that's happened here, you can strike up a conversation with him, and perhaps he'll even bring down the Supreme Kais to visit"

"Um…ok, sounds like a good idea" I reply as I walk out the door.

Upon reaching outside, I looked for a phone, and soon realized there wasn't one!

"Hey Goku, how am I supposed to reach King Kai if there is no phone around?" I complain.

"King Kai doesn't use a phone, he's contacted via telepathy" Goku laughs, as though It was a common thing.

"HA HA! Good one Goku" I chuckle back, thinking his joke was pretty funny.

When he stared at me funny, I realized the truth.

"Oh hell…you're serious?" I reply, feeling pretty shocked.

"Telepathy is a very common power on our planet, heck across the universe here; its useful for intergalactic communications, even earth distances, cause its never interrupted by weather or other powers unless deliberate" Goku explains.

"But telepathy and the like are just science fiction, there's no such thing!" I argue.

Suddenly, Goku's voice was in my head saying, "Are you so sure about that Edward?"

I immediately screamed in a freak out to top all freak outs I'd ever had.

"Calm down, calm down; I was just using telepathy" Goku says assuringly.

"(Pant pant) Man, you almost gave me a heart attack, and they don't make automail hearts dude" I say breathlessly.

"Actually…they do here, but you wouldn't need one cause Saiyans don't get heart attacks, unless you get the heart virus, which you can't since Adam wiped it out" Goku replies.

"SERIOUSLY!" I say with disbelief.

"Go ahead, let me connect you to King Kai, he knows tons about Saiyans, cause I need to go train with Vegeta some more before we send you home to your Universe" Goku says happily.

Suddenly, I remembered about my brother.

"AL! HE'S HOME ALL ALONE, STUCK AS A SUIT OF ARMOR!" I scream in panic.

"Calm down kid, relax-Goku told me everything" a new voice says in my head.

"Are you…King Kai?" I ask, wondering if this was indeed the man I'd heard about.

"Well, It sure isn't your grandma! (Corny laughter)" the man jokes.

"Somehow, I know you're King Kai" I reply as my face turns sour, hoping he can see it.

"Oh lighten up, you're too tense; man, I sure hope Adam helps you unknot-you'll never live life till you can laugh" King Kai laughs cheerfully.

"Yeah, you try joking around when your brother's soul is trapped inside a suit of armor" I retort, hoping he'd get the picture.

Immediately, his telepathic voice stopped responding for several minutes.

"I'm so sorry…I'd forgotten just how bad things are for your brother; forgive my carelessness Edward" King Kai apologizes.

"Its ok…you were just trying to cheer me up King Kai" I reply back.

"Well perhaps you'd like to see what I look like, I look pretty funny-and there's some irony about my appearance" King Kai snickers.

"Sure, lets have it" I say blandly.

Suddenly, a picture flashed in my mind, and it was…funny! It really was!

The great King Kai, was a short stack blue man with antennae on his head!

"(Laughing) YOU WEREN'T KIDDING MAN! YOU'RE RIDICULOUS LOOKING!" I howl, my boisterous laughter ringing over the lookout and through whatever medium my mental speech was going through.

"Ok, take it easy kid, I make the jokes around here-not you" King Kai says seriously.

"Right, ok; so what can you tell me about the physical advantages Saiyans have over humans King Kai?" I ask with seriousness.

King Kai paused for a moment, then began with a question, "Do you know why people fear power?"

"Yeah, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely; classic philosophy" I reply.

"That's not the entire truth; yes great power can corrupt-but that's not always the case" King Kai continues.

"While power is often feared, more often…it is coveted; people envy power" King Kai explains.

I was speechless, that was one of the reasons that people were afraid of Ki; I couldn't blame them though-that was the most terrifying thing I'd ever seen-yet also the most amazing and exciting.

"So when Adam teaches you all the great abilities, like Kaio-Ken, and Super Saiyan stages, do not be discouraged. We believe in you, that you can prevent the great cataclysm about to befall your nation, and still not abuse your power" King Kai replies.

"What…will I be like when my training is complete?" I ask nervously.

"After three years…(Chuckle) you won't even recognize yourself" King Kai says wryly.

With that, we began to talk about various other things regarding Saiyans, until Adam came and took me to begin the training.

At last, the time had come; we were ready to begin, and all of Adam's friends had come to see me off.

"Now then, any last things you'd like to say to Edward before he begins his 3 year journey into Saiyan-hood?" Adam says lightly.

One person came forward, and it was Ulrich-Naruto's Son.

"I wish I could join you, but Dad says its not necessary to do that now since it's a time of peace; good luck Edward Elric-I hope you gain all the power you need to defeat the bad guys" Ulrich says cheerfully.

With a nod, I shook his hand, and said bye to Adam's friends, and walked through the door with him.

_Back in the Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood Universe_

**Winry Rockbell**

It had barely been a whole half day since…the man I loved died.

Last night, my life long childhood friend, Edward Elric was Killed in Action.

Before me, lay an empty casket, as there was nothing left of him after the tremendous explosion-not even the beloved automail I had made for my friend.

And at the head of the grave, was his tombstone, and it read,

"Here lies Edward Elric, Son of Trisha Elric and Van Hoenheim, who died in service to his country: 1899-1914"

As I read it, I cried, remembering something Ed had mentioned to me before, "People don't come back from the dead…ever"

I quickly broke out into loud sobbing, as the Führer himself read his testament of Edward's bravery and courage.

I immediately buried my head into the chest plate of Alphonse's armor.

"I'm so sorry for your loss Winry" Riza Hawkeye says as I receive an unexpected hug from her.

"(Sniffling) I…I didn't even get a chance to tell him…(Snort) how much I love that bean sprout midget" I weep.

"Brother isn't dead; he may seem dead-but I bet he is out there somewhere" Alphonse states firmly.

"I want to believe that too Al…(Sniffle)" I say as I hug Alphonse again.

Then, my Grandmother gave me a hug too.

"I agree with Al Winry, Ed is out there still; don't lose faith child" Penako says comfortingly.

I hugged my Grandmother back, still sobbing heavily.

"That lug better return…or I'm gonna cry forever" I weep, my bitter tears spilling onto the ground.

**Envy**

As I stood beside the bawling group in my solider disguise, I felt disgusted.

How could one pipsqueak cause so much uproar and sadness-even if he was one of Father's prime sacrifices.

"(Muttering) Why? Of all the over the top, melodramatic, showy things; they have to cry over the Fullmetal Pipsqueak" I say under my breath.

Suddenly, Roy Mustang came over to me and said something I wasn't expecting.

"Did you ever meet the Fullmetal Alchemist?" he asks with curiosity.

"Uh…no, didn't get the chance" I reply quickly, hoping he wouldn't catch my hesitation.

"Yeah, Edward was always traveling-not that surprised" Mustang says as he looks at Riza Hawkeye.

I quickly took the time to admire the humans, and saw their despair.

Even Lust and Pride were here at the funeral.

However, I motioned that it was time to fly the coop. As we didn't belong here.

After Roy Mustang to talk to Riza, Lust and I just waltzed out of there.

As I turned my head one last time to see the humans, I felt a pang of desire for their kind of companionship, what they experienced and felt.

_Back in the Dragon Ball Z Universe_

**Edward Elric**

As soon as I entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, I was flabbergasted.

IT WAS BARREN!

Asides from the small villa we had stepped onto after exiting the doorway, it was an endless barren expanse of nothingness; white and eternal.

"This is a joke right? We're gonna train here!" I complain, completely dissatisfied with the conditions I had been presented with.

"Absolutely not!" Adam snaps back, as though he agreed with me.

Then, he walked over to a huge panel full of knobs and dials, just like the one outside the chamber. After several seconds of twisting and adjusting dials, I heard a loud warbling.

Suddenly, the scenery around us changed, and it was a tropical jungle!

"We're gonna train here first" Adam smiles.

I was admiring the amazing surroundings, when suddenly Adam yelled, "Edward, think fast!"

Without warning, the ground beneath me changed into two gargantuan fists, and tried to clap me between themselves!

I barely managed to clap mine in time so I could transmute an opening in the palm of one of Adam's giant stone palms and jump out.

As I panted, I averted my gaze to Adam and bellowed, "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT! YOU ALMOST KILLED ME YOU NUTCASE!"

"A likely story; even if you hadn't managed to escape my stone clap in time, I'd have healed you before you could begin to suffer" Adam replies nonchalantly.

"Well you could have killed me!" I scream.

"The point of that exercise was to gauge your physical strength and reaction time; you failed on both Edward. If you were an already trained Saiyan, I would have expected you to be able to smash those things with your bare hands with 12 feet between you to spare" Adam explains calmly.

As he said all those things, I stood there with my jaw hung open clear to the ground.

"Like King Kai told you, you won't recognize yourself after this training; unlocking your Ki will make you more powerful than you can possibly imagine" Adam says with a smile.

I was about to ask how he knew that King Kai had been talking to me, but he cut in mid thought and said, "Alright, now you try to use Alchemy against me Edward"

I decided now would be a chance to get back at him for his previous trick.

I quickly clapped my hands, and slammed them into the ground.

Instantly, the ground began to rumble toward him, and a giant pair of hands formed, then they smashed him between their palms.

"HA-DIRECT HIT!" I yell with triumph.

"You'd think so wouldn't you Edward" Adam whispers beside me.

Before I could even move my head, I felt a fist connect with my jaw and shatter it, sending me sprawling over 1000 feet, and through 12 trees, breaking over 20 bones and bruising countless organs.

"You're pathetic Edward; what would you do if you faced an opponent with that kind of power?" Adam chastises as he floats over me.

All I could do was moan pathetically as the pain consumed me.

Suddenly, there was a snap, and the pain was gone.

"We have A LOT of work to do Edward" Adam says with an annoyed tone.


	6. Chapter 6: The Three Years Part 2

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 6: The Three Years Part 2: Training Complete**

_3 years later_

**Edward Elric**

It had been a grueling three years; days and days on end, with nothing but meditation, and then practice with my new powers.

However, Adam was right, after 3 years-I didn't recognize myself!

I had grown from a puny 4 foot 11, to 6 foot 4, my muscles looked like Major Armstrong's, and my hair was as good as ever!

"Alright Edward, it is time for your final test" Adam says proudly.

I smiled and prepared for the exam.

"For your final test, which shall be broken into 3 parts-you will perform Ki attacks and sensing, advanced martial arts, perform alchemy without clapping or transmutation circles, and finally, transform as far as Super Saiyan 4 and turn into an Oozaru, then battle a clone of me with a power level of 500 million" Adam states as a clone of himself splits off his body.

Immediately, Adam transmuted his hand into a miniature gong, and rang it.

Quickly, I used my new Ki sensing powers and got a lock onto the clone. Then, I cupped my hands, and prepared the signature move of the Son Family.

"KAAAAAAAAAAA…MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…HAAAAAAAAAAAA…MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-" I yell as the bright blue energy forms in my palms, making the area near me light up.

As my energy reached its peak, I let me senses guess the escape plan the clone was likely to make, then let my Kamehameha rip.

"!" I scream as the huge trashcan wide beam of pure energy erupts from my grasp.

The clone zipped to the left, but I had anticipated this, and leaned the beam into the that direction. With surgical precision, the beam struck the clone in the head, and made it splat like a tomato, sending blood everywhere as the now dead clone slumped to the ground.

"Whhhhhhhhoooooaaaaaaaaa! Ok Edward, you've proven yourself in Ki art and battle, but you still need to do Advanced Martial Arts and Motionless Alchemy" Adam says with impression in his tone as he absorbs the mass of his clone back into his body.

I decided to impress Adam, and create an autonomous robot as my opponent.

With a nod of my head, the ground beneath me erupted up and transmuted into an android version of myself.

Then, Adam created a microchip with his powers, and slipped it into the geared golem.

The mechanical man sprang to life, and assumed a crane stance.

I quickly assumed the monkey pose, and leapt at the android with the grace and skill of a black belt monk.

After several seconds, the robot lay in sparking pieces all over the ground.

With a smile, Adam patted my shoulder, and said, "Congratulations my young gakuto-you have passed with flying colors"

I smiled, and gave my teacher-a teacher who acted like a true father-a hug.

"Thank you Adam, you've been so kind to me, and for no reason at all; how can I repay you fath…er-I mean, Sensei?" I reply with a smile

"All you need to do is beat the freakin snot out of Father when you confront him my student; now then, lets go show you off to the others Edward, show them the fruits of your labor" Adam says proudly.

**Inuyasha**

I couldn't believe Kagome dragged me up to the lookout for this; a kid Goku had rescued from another universe.

"Kagome, can't we be reasonable about this? We had a day out planned for Pete's sake, and we already met him before he went inside" I argue.

"Oh lighten up dear, this kind of thing doesn't happen very often; I think its rather cool" Kagome counters.

As if on cue, the door to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber opened, and Adam stepped out.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, may I present to you-the new and improved, EDWARD ELRIC!" Adam says proudly.

Suddenly, from within the doorway, out stepped a man in his physical prime.

"Hey everyone, about time I saw you all again; it has been three years after all" Edward says cheerfully.

Right then, nearly all our jaws dropped as we looked at the new Edward.

HE WAS BUFF! He was like a blonde version of Goku!

"Whoa…" Kagome says as she blushes.

"Nice wife you got there Inuyasha, hope nobody steals her from ya" Edward says as he clicks his tongue.

Immediately Kagome giggled and said, "Oh go on, you're such a charmer Edward"

"(Growl) ALRIGHT THAT'S IT! WE'RE OUT OF HERE!" I scowl, as I take Kagome's arm and prepare to teleport away.

"INUYASHA! He was just kidding" Kagome argues.

"Yeah well he may have been, but I'd rather not take chances" I say as we begin to flash, then vanish from the Lookout.

**Son Goku**

I was amazed, this man…was the boy I'd rescued just 3 years ago? (3 days by our time).

"Wow…Son, you do amazing work" I compliment as I hug my son.

"Thank you, but you've seen nothing yet" Adam replies with a glint in his eye.

"Edward! Show them the extent of your training in Alchemy" Adam yells authoritatively.

Immediately, Edward nodded, and the tiles beneath me rumbled.

Suddenly, a white fist sprang out, and I quickly moved my arms to defend my face.

However, nothing hit. As I let down my guard, I saw that the fist wasn't a fist…it was extended for a hand shake!

"Whoa…um…I don't know any other way to describe this Edward; Amazing, simply amazing" I say as I shake the stone hand.

"Whoa…he didn't even move to use Alchemy" Daniel says as he looks at Edward like he was a new man.

"Yeah, Adam taught me how to use my Ki and any mass or energy to create solid matter" Edward replies.

"You mean…even the air?" Krillin asks timidly.

Without warning, a loaf of bread plopped onto Kirllin's head.

"That answer your question?" Edward laughs.

Suddenly, Edward turned to face Vegeta and said, "Vegeta, there's something I've been meaning to do since I entered the Hyperbolic Time Chamber"

Vegeta grunted and turned his head to face Edward.

In an instant, Vegeta was recoiling in pain, and I noticed the metal fist that had struck him in the chops.

"THAT'S FOR TRYING TO KILL ME YOU JERK!" Edward yells angrily.

We all stared in amazement as Vegeta literally had to pick himself up from that punch.

"OH! YOU'VE GOT SOME NERVE PUNK!" Vegeta screams as he powers up to Super Saiyan.

"AH AH! Careful there hotshot" Edward warns.

"I could easily transmute you into steam, cause I've got you" Edward says slyly.

We then noticed that there was a tendril connecting from Edward to Vegeta, a tendril of Ki energy.

"One false move and you'll need those Dragons Balls to come back from the dead" Edward threatens.

"(Growl) You're good kid, I'll give you that" Vegeta scowls.

"Well, I'd love to stick around-but I need to return home; Al needs me" Edward says as he gives me and Adam a hug.

"We're gonna miss you Edward" Katie says as she hugs Edward too.

Adam's son James had also come to see Edward off, and gave him a firm handshake.

"Yeah, you're cool by me man" James says with a smile.

"Come back and visit soon Edward" Katherine says happily.

"Sure thing guys" Edward replies as he claps his hands, preparing to open a portal.

"WAIT! You cannot leave yet my student" Adam says as he interrupts the formation of the universal portal.

**Edward Elric**

I was just about to create a wormhole with my new alchemy, until Adam stopped me.

"Edward, before you go…I want you to have something of the utmost importance" Adam says as he takes my hands.

Then, I felt him put something into my fists, something cold, but at the same time, warm.

I quickly held it up to examine it; it was a crystal clear stone on a chain that glowed with 7 different colors.

"That is a Reality Stone Edward, my gift to you" Adam says as he puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Whats it do Sensei?" I ask as I place the stone around my neck.

"You will know when the time comes, but know this-I have limited its power-you cannot use it for everything, but you can do things with it that are impossible with either Alchemy or Alkahestry" Adam replies.

With that, we hugged each other one last time.

"I won't let you down Sensei" I say as I bow to my master.

Then, with a clap of my hands, and an infusion of my own Ki, I created a portal and leapt through.


	7. Chapter 7: Home At Last!

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 7: Home At Last!**

**Edward Elric**

As I stepped through the portal, I used my Ki senses to make sure that Father hadn't pulled a fast one on me while I had been gone.

As my senses alerted me to a whole country filled with life, I found myself realizing that things were safe…for the moment.

"Well, I'd better get my bearings" I say to myself as I curl up my tail around my waist.

I quickly walked over to the nearest building and asked where I was.

"Well son, you're in Dublith" the man at the bar says cheerfully.

With that, I sweat dropped, and realized that this bar was just across the street from teacher's house.

But then I remembered, Izumi was no match for me now.

I chuckled and decided before I took off, I'd pay her a visit.

**Izumi Curtis**

As I was helping my husband chop meat, I smiled, knowing I was lucky to have a man like him.

Suddenly, the door to our shop burst open, as a tall figure stood in the doorway.

"Ahhh, hello there young man; can I get you anything?" Sig asks the potential customer.

"Yeah, I was wanting to talk to a woman named Izumi Curtis" the man says as his silhouette cast figure speaks.

"Oh, well in that case, my wife is right over there" Sig says as he motions to me with his big meaty arm.

"(Chuckle) Same old Sig; you were always a teddy bear unless you're fighting" the young man says in a voice I instantly recognized.

"Who are you?" I ask suspiciously.

"What, don't you recognize your old student?" the man says as he smiles and steps out of the sunlight.

Immediately, I was struck by a sight I was not expecting.

"EDWARD ELRIC!" Sig screams in alarm.

I then dropped my butcher knife in shock. As it clattered to the floor, I saw that the young man was indeed my old student…Edward Elric.

As the butcher knife clattered, I quickly began to cough up blood from emotional overflow.

Suddenly, the man rushed over to me…did he even move?

Before I could reply he began to speak, "Hang on teacher, this blood coughing shall never happen again"

Without warning, I felt my entire body filled with an explicably life giving energy.

After several seconds, I realized something was…off.

After all the years without a uterus…I knew what its absence felt like; but now…

"S-Sig…my uterus…I have a uterus again" I stammer, unable to believe it at first.

"All your organs have been reconstituted teacher, I couldn't bear to see you bleed anymore" the man says kindly.

As we both stared at him, he gave us each a smile as warm as the sun.

"Who are you young man?" Sig asks with disbelief.

"If you don't believe its me, then here is proof" the man says as he pulls out a silver pocket watch.

As he opened it, there was the same writing as Edward had in his watch!

"Don't forget, 3. oct. 11"

"Edward…is it really you?" I ask, hope and tears brimming in my eyes.

Edward then did something completely unlike him-HE HUGGED ME!

"I'm sorry I made everyone worry" he says apologetically.

**Edward Elric**

After explaining everything I'd been through, they stared at me in shock, like I was completely mental.

"Edward…because of your trip…everyone thought you were dead" Izumi replies as she continues to absorb my story.

"ARE YOU SERIOUS!" I scream in horror.

"They held a burial service with an empty casket just over 3 days ago Edward" Sig replies with affirmation.

"No…Al…Winry…" I say, as my words get hung up in my throat.

"I HAVE TO GO FIND THEM NOW, WHERE ARE THEY!" I scream in anguish.

**Izumi Curtis**

I could see how horrified Edward was as he realized that everyone he cared about thought he was dead.

"They're at Penako's in Resembool, so lets go get you a train ticket and-"

"THERE'S NO TIME FOR THAT!" Edward screams.

Suddenly, he erupted in a flash of golden light, his hair and eyes changing color as the shop becomes filled with an unbelievable power and wind.

"I've got to go home now! WINRY AND AL NEED ME!" Edward yells angrily.

Without warning, he took flight and burst through the roof!

As his golden aura left a trail behind for several seconds, I realized he wasn't planning on waiting for an instant to get to his family.

**Winry Rockbell**

After 3 days, I began to wonder if Edward really was…NO! I couldn't let myself think that.

"Winry dear, I know its hard but…I think its time we accept the facts; Edward's gone now, and all the hoping in the world can't bring him back from the dead" my grandmother says as she hugs me.

"(Sniffle) No…Edward isn't gone; he can't be…I love him, he can't be gone, he just can't be!" I scream, my tears burning hot as they stream down my face.

"(Crying) Brother…we were gonna get our bodies back together" Al says as he sits in the corner crying. But being just a suit of armor, the only thing real about his crying was the sound.

Suddenly, there was a huge boom outside, that shook the whole countryside.

Then there was an even larger crash, and it seemed the whole planet shook from the vibrations.

Then, like a crash of thunder, a deep voice bellowed, "WINRRRYYYY!"

Suddenly, the door burst open, and a giant rushed through like a gust of wind and swept me off my feet in a bone crushing hug.

"WINRY! I'm so sorry I made you all think I was dead, don't cry anymore please" the man says as he hugs me blue from suffocation.

"(Choking) Excuse me…GACK! Could you please….let me breathe sir?" I wheeze, my face turning purple.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Winry; I was just so happy to see you" the man states as he releases me.

"Who are you young man?" Penako asks suspiciously.

"Wha…don't you recognize who I' am? Its me-Ed" the man says with a smile.

"LIAR! Edward is a bean sprout midget with two automail limbs; not a tall…handsome…muscular…(drooling)" I start, trailing off into admiration of this amazingly suave stranger.

"I can prove it, if I wasn't Edward, I wouldn't have this cause supposedly it was vaporized in the explosion" the man says as he pulls out a silver pocket watch with the iconic words scratched on the inside.

Suddenly, the world fell away-and all my sadness melted into oblivion.

"Ed…its really you" I begin, my eyes watering.

"That's right Winry-" Ed starts. Opening his arms for a hug.

"-I'm home at last" he says sweetly.

With that, I instantly embraced the man I loved.

"Welcome back Edward (Sniffle) I missed you" I reply as I sob tears of joy.


	8. Chapter 8: Getting Reacquainted

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 8: Getting Reacquainted **

**Alphonse Elric**

I was totally speechless; here I was feeling cheated out of getting my body back cause my brother died-then out of nowhere, he comes back-AND HE ALREADY HAS HIS LIMBS BACK!

"Al, I know you're probably mad that I got my body back already, but I'm gonna make it up to you by getting yours back right now" Edward says as he hugs me.

"Ok brother, lets draw a Human Transmutation Circle and get it done" I say as my demeanor cools and I grab a piece of chalk.

"No Al, you stay back; I'm going to tear open the Gates of Truth and take your body back-and nothing will stop me!" Ed says firmly.

Suddenly, the air filled with blue electric sparks, and the eye of "The Truth" appeared on the floor.

"I'll be back soon brother" Ed says as he hugs me.

"Don't worry Winry-the Truth can't take anything from me ever again; I will see you again" Edward says kindly.

Then, in a move that shocked us all; HE KISSED HER!

As soon as he finished kissing her, his body was deconstructed and he disappeared.

**Edward Elric**

As I appeared before the Gate, I realized I was but a moment away from recovering Al's body.

"So Edward…you've come for your brother's body have you? What will you offer in return?" The Truth says with a toothy grin.

I immediately grabbed him by his neck in a chokehold.

"NO GAMES! WHERE IS MY BROTHER'S BODY YOU BASTARD!" I scream, powering up to Super Saiyan 3 to emphasize my zero tolerance for games.

"Calm down Edward; he's behind me-but you know the law of Equivalent Exchange-you must give up something of equal value to gain something in retur-"

"YEAH PIPE IT YOU JERK! GIVE ME AL'S BODY OR I'LL BEAT YOU TO A PULP THEN TEAR OPEN THE GATEWAY MYSELF!" I bellow, cutting him off as and making the whole area shake.

"(Panting) Ok Ok! Calm down, lets not upset the natural order of God's Realm you have ventured into; I'm sure we can reach an agreeable compromise Edward-isn't it fair that you give me at least some gift in exchange for your brother's body? Seeing as you got your limbs back free of charge?" The Truth asks feebly.

I scowled, but then remembered how he had shown me the Truth, allowing me to perform Alchemy without a Transmutation Circle.

"(Growl) Alright, I guess you do deserve something seeing as I circumvented Equivalent Exchange already with my teacher Psyagon giving me a new body in his universe" I reply.

However, at the mention of my master's name, the Truth stopped smiling.

"Did you say, "THE" Psyagon? The Divine Saiyan?" The Truth says in a surprised tone.

"Yeah, what's it mean to you?" I reply hostilely.

"Psyagon prevented that demon Mephelis from reaching this Universe by destroying him; if it wasn't for Psyagon-the balance of reality would have been shattered causing chaos" The Truth replies, relief filling his tone.

"I know, he told me that already" I respond, feeling annoyed that The Truth was beating around the bush.

"Well if you really trained under the mighty Psyagon-I think I owe him for all he has done; so part of my debt I owe him shall be paid off now for you" The Truth says with a smile.

With a snap of his fingers, he began to dissolve and disappear, showing Alphonse's body right in front of me.

"Give my regards to Psyagon next time you see him Edward, and thank you for not hurting me" The Truth says cheerfully.

Alphonse's body then feebly stood up and limped to my grasp.

"Brother…you came back for me" he says weakly.

"Yeah, and I'm taking you home now…brother" I say quietly as I pick him up in my arms and carry him through the Gateway with a smile.

**Winry Rockbell**

After 10 minutes, we were getting anxious and worried. I seriously considered drawing a Human Transmutation Circle and going after him myself; but before I got the chance-a hole opened in the air, and Edward dropped from it gracefully-WITH AL'S BODY!

"Hey guys, I'm back" Edward says calmly with a smile.

"(Gasp) can I have some water" Al's body says hoarsely, the effects of his years in another dimension showing their toll as he fully returned to the world of the living.

"MY BODY!" Al shouts with enthusiasm and glee.

Suddenly, Edward waved his hand and the floor grew a pillar-WITH A BOWL OF WATER ON TOP!

"There you go, fresh spring water Al's Body" Edward says warmly.

Without warning, Alphonse burst into a stream of unintelligible gibberish, so did I.

"Whoa whoa! Calm down, what's wrong guys?" Edward asks, acting as though we were overreacting.

"Brother…you performed Alchemy…without a Transmutation Circle, Clapping your hands, or following Equivalent Exchange" Al says from his suit of armor.

I was as shocked as Alphonse; no one should be able to do that!

"Yes, Yes, and No; I didn't use a circle, nor did I clap-this is all true; but I did follow Equivalent Exchange" Edward says as he sets Alphonse down on the sofa.

"But brother…Wood doesn't have the same chemical properties as water, how can you make water from wood?" Al retorts.

"Because Al, all the necessary elements are around us; combining the Hydrogen and Oxygen from the atmosphere created water, with the combination of different elements found in the wood, I made it mountain spring water" Edward explains proudly.

We stared at him with out mouths agape in awe.

"Edward…where did you learn to do that?" I ask speechlessly.

"And what did you exchange for my body?" Alphonse asks as he holds the hand of his body.

"I didn't exchange anything-I took your body" Edward states flatly as he gets some clothes for Al's body.

As soon as Penako and I heard that, we nearly choked.

"Brother…how did you manage to pull that off?" Armor Al asks as he places the clothing on his body's form.

"Cause The Truth owed my latest teacher a favor" Edward says as he hugs me.

I suddenly felt the urge to hug Edward back; so I did so-with great passion and love.

"As soon as we calm down, and fix up Al back into his body-tell us everything" I whisper to Edward as I keep hugging him.

"That reminds me…how are we gonna get my soul back into my body brother?" Armor Al asks eagerly.

Immediately, the sense of calm was broken.

"You do have a plan right brother?" Armor Al asks as he puts a blanket over his body.

"OH CRUD! I DIDN'T THINK ABOUT THAT PART!" Edward screams, his tone one of horror and unprepared anguish.

**Alphonse Elric**

As I realized Edward hadn't thought about that part of the situation, I began to panic.

"BROTHER! IF MY BODY IS HERE, BUT IM STILL ATTACHED TO THE ARMOR…WHATS GONNA HAPPEN IF WE DETACH MY SOUL FROM THE ARMOR!" I yell with worry.

"Lets not panic; we'll just get information from the senior staff in Central-the ones who bonded Barry the Chopper and Number 48 to their armors" Edward says as he smiles.

Suddenly, there was a burst of wind, and his eyes changed color to cyan, along with his hair hue slightly-to more of a lighter golden; a fiery aura of energy surging all around him.

"Alright, meet me outside" Edward says with a smile as he vanishes.

As we rushed out the door, we saw Ed was already out there, with a strange machine, still sparking with the remnants of an alchemic reaction.

"Brother…did you make this?" I ask in astonishment.

"I sure did; its call an airplane or aero plane" Ed says proudly (Note: this plane looks like a typical fighter jet, but with more passenger room.

"Whats it do?" Winry asks as she admires the curved shape and extended sides.

"What do you think? It flies" Edward says plainly.

As soon as he said that, we started laughing.

"HEY! I'M NOT KIDDING YOU JERKS!" Edward yells, causing the earth to rumble.

Immediately, we stopped laughing, worried what might happen if he really got mad.

"Sorry Ed but…its just…how can that colossal hunk of junk fly?" Winry replies, wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes.

"Cause it uses the same principle birds use to fly; lift" Edward says.

"But brother, birds can generate enough counter force from their wing beats to offset their weight; and this…well…it doesn't flap I assume" I reply.

"That's where part two kicks in; see it may not flap-but it produces jet propulsion-like a firework. Its called thrust" Edward continues.

"So this…airplane, it actually generates enough thrust to get off the ground and not plummet to the earth once it gets there?" Winry asks in disbelief.

"Oh it does far more than that; this baby can reach Mach 2 easy" Ed says proudly.

"Mach?" we all ask in unison.

"(Groan) Its advanced physics I learned from my master; Mach 1 is the speed of sound in air-761 Miles Per Hour or 343 meters per second" Edward replies with a smile.

"So that airplane can go…(gasp) twice the speed of sound!" Winry yells in astonishment.

"You bet, want me to make it a faster plane?" Edward says with a wink.

"They can go faster!" Winry yells excitedly.

"I could make a plane with a scramjet engine, with that it can reach Mach 25 no sweat" Edward says as he rubs his fingers together.

"EEEEHHHHHHHHHHH! MAKE A SCRAMJET PLANE! I WANT TO GO FAST!" Winry squeals excitedly.

"Alright alright! Calm down Winry" Ed laughs as he pats her back.

Almost instantly, the plane began to reform, into something…huge.

After several seconds, it was now more than 3 times its previous size, and sparking all over from the alchemic power used to create it.

"Well go ahead and look inside guys" Edward says with a gesture of his hand.

As we stepped inside, we were amazed.

"Edward…it will be able to fly even with all this inside an us too-right?" Winry asks in a hushed voice.

"It sure will, this puppy will get us to Central in less than 2 minutes" Edward says proudly.

Suddenly, we found ourselves strapped into seats without warning.

"We need to go now, so I went ahead and strapped you all in" Edward says calmly.

Then, there was a hum and Edward started the engines.

But then, he vanished again!

However, I soon realized what he was doing, as I felt the whole ship rising up!

However, after several seconds, I realized we were ascending too quickly to be by an alchemic pillar or hand.

"Alright-I got us off the ground; now its time to engage the thrusters" Edward says as he appears inside the plane again and casually walks to the cabin.

Before we could ask any questions are even express astonishment, the entire plane began to move so fast we were pressed into our seats.

"AND OFF TO CENTRAL!" Edward whoops.

"YEAH!" Winry yells with excitement.

As I wondered how Edward would be able to lift us without alchemic constructs, we sped toward our destination.

**Penako Rockbell**

In a span of less than 10 minutes, Edward had taken Al and my granddaughter beyond view entirely in that machine he called an airplane.

"(Sigh) Oh well, I guess I'll keep an eye on Al's body till they get back" I say to myself as I walk back inside.

With one last glance into the sky, I hoped they'd be alright-then closed the door.


	9. Chapter 9: Confronting The Führer

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 9: Confronting The Führer **

**Winry Rockbell**

True to his word, we were above Central before we could even begin to get comfortable…well, before I could; Al was still in the armor so he had no real sense of touch.

"Alright, time to get out" Edward says cheerfully.

Before we could ask how, we were each thrown a strange backpack.

"Uh…brother…what are these?" Alphonse asks nervously.

"Parachutes; you jump out the plane with them" Edward replies, as though it were the simplest thing in the world.

As I began to fully realize what he was asking, my anger took over.

"YOU WANT US TO JUMP OUT OF THE PLANE WHILE WE'RE STILL IN THE SKY; HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!" I bellow.

"No, these things are used by the balloonists in the military, I just made us more modern models based on the ones I saw in my master's database" Edward says cheerfully.

"You mean…they work brother?" Alphonse asks, hoping for confirmation.

"Odds of them failing are less than half a percent; you'll float safely to the ground for sure Al, so will you Winry" Ed says confidently as he hugs me.

As Ed opened the door, I looked over the edge and nearly fainted.

"Ed…I don't know if I can do this" I say nervously.

"Easy, pull the blue cord when you jump; if it fails to open, or the primary chute becomes torn or burnt, then pull the red cord for the emergency cute; should both fail, I will save you" Edward says as he holds me close.

I nodded, and decided to jump.

"YAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" I scream as gravity begins to pull me earthward.

**Edward Elric**

After making sure that Winry and Al had jumped, I leapt out too.

However, having learnt how to fly, I was in no danger of falling if I choose to not do so.

I kept an eye on them from a good distance to make sure they were safe.

After they had successfully landed in the middle of Central, I teleported to a nearby building top, then climbed down the side and ran to join them in the street.

"Ed…but…you were…how did you…I mean…" Winry stammers.

"Brother…how did you get down without a parachute or landing the plane?" Al asks curiously.

"I'll explain everything later guys; right now we need to go talk to the senior military staff and get some answers on how to get your soul back into your body Al" I reply as I hug both of them.

Suddenly, a group of soldiers appeared before us, and pointed their guns.

"ATTENTION! YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!" the soldiers say as they approach me.

I became very annoyed at this hostile gesture.

"Sir, you are under arrest, don't make this any harder than it has to be" one of the blue suits says as he produces forth a pair of handcuffs.

I smirked, realizing where once I was dwarfed by the soldiers, now I dwarfed them.

"Heh…I don't think so" I smile as I grab the handcuffs from the tiny officer.

"Uh, HEY!" he argues futilely.

I then proceeded to crumple them like tinfoil and tossed them to the ground.

When the soldiers saw this, they lost their nerve and began to panic.

"What are you shorties gonna do now?" I smile, my feral grin showing my Saiyan nature.

"ALL UNITS! FIRE ON THE BIG ONE!" the commanders says as he takes his radio and screams the command into it.

Immediately, I was pelted with gunfire…it tickled.

"EDWARD! NOOOOOOOO!" Winry screams, tears streaming down her face.

However, after 30 seconds of shooting, the soldiers realized how useless their bullets were, as they merely bounced off my skin like peas.

"(Gasping) T-the-there's no way" the officer stammers.

I began to frown, as they had made Winry cry, who was now on the other side of the street after my brother hustled her over there for safety.

"JUST, NO WAY!" the officer continues.

I then furrowed my brow and spoke.

"Well now, if you're done, I guess its my turn" I say gleefully.

Faster than the human eye could follow, I zoomed in on the commander and gutted him with the force of a freight train, sending him flying across the pavement, and through a concrete wall with a huge crash.

All the other soldiers gasped as they saw this, and a few ran for their lives; they were the smart ones.

"BRING IN THE MORTAR!" another soldier yells, bringing out the explosive launching mechanism.

Quickly, they fired the mortar; but I caught the shell before it even detonated.

"AAAHHHHHHH! THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!" one of the soldiers screams.

After crumpling the shell like a paper sack, I then gutted the soldier who had ordered the mortar be fired and sent him through a wall too.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" a soldier screams, sending the rest of the men in a pitiful disorganized retreat.

"No…no, I won't let you run" I say with a low voice, quickly creating a wall around us in the middle of the street with alchemy.

"DIE YOU DOGS!" I shout, preparing a huge surge of Ki around me.

Then…I let it loose.

With an earth shattering boom, the whole area shook, and the wall was blown to pieces, along with everyone inside but myself.

After the dust cleared, I noticed there were a few soldiers lying on the ground; dying from their wounds.

"(Groan) Please…spare me" a soldier says as he crawls to my feet.

"Tell me where the Führer is, and I will" I say as I bend down and look him in the eyes.

"UGH! He's in his office" the soldier says weakly.

Then, I took a few ounces of nearby earth and transmuted a handful of Senzu beans, and handed one to the soldier.

"Eat it, and you will live" I say as I stand up and place the rest of the beans in a small satchel.

Then, with a burst of speed and power the world had never seen before, I rushed to the North Gates of Central Command Center, and smashed them down as easily as one would stomp a weed.

After smashing the gates, I bellowed with all my power.

"BRADLEEEEYYYYYYYYY!" I thunder, causing all of Amestris to quake under my voice.

**Führer King Bradley/Wrath**

As I felt the whole country quake, I looked out my window and saw a lone figure at the remains of the smashed gate.

Who the hell is that?

While pondering this, I watched my soldiers try to take him down, as he mowed through them like grass.

Only Homunculi have that kind of power…could that be Hoenheim?

"BRADLEY! COME OUT HERE YOU COWARD AND FIGHT ME!" the man bellows angrily, causing the whole area to shake again.

"Sir, that monster wants to fight you" one of the officers says as he enters my office.

"I heard, the whole country heard that roar soldier" I reply as I take off my eye patch and use my Ouroboros Eye to scan the being who was tearing apart my country.

Suddenly, I realized who it was.

"Edward…so he isn't dead after all; but how did he get so big?" I ask myself out loud.

"Sir, he's headed this way!" another soldier screams as he runs into my office.

"(Grunt) Looks like I have no choice; gentlemen, bring me my swords" I say as I stand up from my chair.

As I was handed my two blades, I jumped out the window promptly to face the Full Metal Alchemist.

As I landed, I was immediately faced with the angry young alchemist, who now stared me level in the eye.

"Ah, the Führer comes at last" Edward says mockingly.

"What do you want Fullmetal?" I ask angrily.

"I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE YOU BASTARD! I KNOW ALL ABOUT YOU AND FATHER!" Edward roars, sending me sprawling across the lawn as his voice creates hurricane strength winds.

As he mentioned Father, I realized something was terribly wrong.

"Who told you that?" I demand, wondering how he figured it out.

"The same one who taught me THIS!" Edward screams.

Suddenly, a pillar of earth flew out and nearly struck me square in the forehead; I barely dodged in time with my Ultimate Eye.

After I regained my footing, I saw something was off.

"You…you didn't clap your hands…y, you didn't even move…just like Father" I stammer.

"That's right, and I learned how to do it without being a living Philosopher's Stone" Edward says haughtily.

I was infuriated at how he talked down on Father, I was going to make him pay if it was the last thing I did.

"You're going down Fullmetal…GUARDS!" I yell, my elite force of warriors rushing to add me.

"Kill Edward Elric, I don't care what Father has to say, he must die!" I scream angrily as I turn to face my special corp.

However, I noticed they were gone, all that was left was a pile of smoldering ashes where each of my 9 warriors once stood.

"Give it up Bradley, I alone have more power than all of the branches of Amestrian Armed Forces, AND The Homunculi and State Alchemists put together" Edward states as he begins to fly.

Wait, FLY! EVEN FATHER CAN'T DO THAT!

"You haven't got a hope in hell Homunculus" Edward smirks as a ball of blue energy forms in his palm.

I began to shake, as I realized the huge power gap between me and the aged Edward Elric was beyond my imagination.

"BIG BANG ATTACK!" Edward screams.

Then, the ball of energy was let loose, STRAIGHT AT ME!

It took all my skill and Ultimate Eye just to get by with a scratch on my right shoulder.

As the so called "Big Bang Attack" hurtled across the courtyard, the ground beneath it cracked and melted.

Then, the burst of energy hit the dead center of the central command, AND EXPLODED!

**Edward Elric**

As I smiled, having blown up half of the very center of all the corrupted government, I starred at Wrath with a crazed grin.

"So Führer, would you prefer I blow up some more of your precious country…or would you rather accept your death like a man?" I state, presenting my ultimatum.

As I enjoyed watching this living lie squirm with fear and regret, I felt a strong urge that made my blood boil with the desire to smash his head like a Pumpkin and watch his brains be spilt all over the earth.

"Make your decision Wrath, or I'll just go kill your fellow Homunculi right here and now" I threaten.

"How would you do that! You don't even know where they are" Wrath argues.

"I can sense them" I state flatly.

Immediately, Wrath's expression went from suspicious, to frightened.

"Plain as day, as if I had a tracking device for each of them; their Ki is so high it makes them stand out among the humans like cats in a swarm of mice" I explain as I enjoy him squirm more.

"But…but what is this Ki you sense; Homunculi aren't the same as Humans" Wrath stutters.

"But all things that breathe have life force" I reply with a smirk.

Instantly, Wrath's mouth dropped open.

"That's right, Ki is Life Energy; its also what that Big Bang I attacked you with was comprised of; I have more Ki inside me than this entire country deep down" I explain as I watch him practically writhe with agony and despair at my words.

I decided that if in the next five minutes he had not made his choice, I would destroy him, and Father, and all of Central Command with everything beneath it in one all mighty blast.

**Son Adam/Psyagon**

I had just finished sparring with my son James, who had become so very powerful, and made me so proud, when I felt the emergency beacon go off from the jewel I had given Edward before he left.

"No, NO, NOOOO! I'D PRAYED HE WOULDN'T GIVE IN!" I scream, frustration filling my mind.

"Dad…what's wrong?" James asks kindly.

"Son, remember how your Grandfather saved Edward Elric and I trained him in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for 3 years?" I reply.

"Yeah, and before that you saved him from death by breaking down his body and turning him into a Saiyan; did something happen to Edward?" James asks with concern.

"Worse…something's happening within him, in his mind" I continue.

"What do you mean father?" James says as his expression changes to one of intense worry.

"Remember how Vegeta was before he started living on Earth, before he fell in love with Bulma and had a family?" I remark.

"Yeah, how he was a wild animal who obeyed the Saiyan instinct to fight and killed mercilessly" my son states in remembrance.

"Edward has fallen prey to the same bloodlust son" I reply with a sour tone.

Immediately, my Son began to express his concern.

"WE CAN'T HAVE ANOTHER VEGETA RUNNING AROUND, NO ONE ELSE IN THAT UNIVERSE CAN MATCH HIS POWER, NO ONE!" James yells, his tone a mixture of fright and anger.

"No, he isn't like Vegeta…he's just consumed with the rage at having learned all that is really happening in his beloved country, he is not like Vegeta at all; all Edward needs is some guiding care from someone he loves" I reply.

As fast as my power allowed, I used the jewel to establish a connection to Edward's world with my mind, then looked around with my Omnigon.

"She has to be nearby, Edward would never have left her alone after she thought he'd died" I say out loud as I comb Central City with my mystic vision.

After several seconds, I found her, rushing toward the battered remains of the Central Command Center's North Gate. It was time to speak to her.


	10. Chapter 10: The Touch Of Love

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 10: The Touch Of Love **

**Winry Rockbell**

I had heard screaming and loud rumbles that made the ground quake, but I had no idea it was caused my Edward until I saw King Bradley zoom over my head and into the street, causing the pavement to shatter like glass from his impact.

"I…I wasn't dreaming…" I say to myself as I stare blankly at what Edward had done to the good Führer.

"Brother…what's happened to you?" Al says as he eyes the weak form of King Bradley too.

Suddenly, Edward appeared from what seemed to be out of nowhere, and kicked Bradley like a kickball, who barely recovered and broke into a run.

"GET BACK HERE SO I CAN KILL YOU YA LOUSY GOOD FOR NOTHING HOMUNCULUS!" Edward bellows before vanishing again.

I was at a loss to explain his sudden harsh temper; but even more difficult for me to figure out…was how he had become some kind of war god being.

As I began to cry, a voice as soothing as an angel called out to me, "Winry-calm down"

I suddenly became alert, and looked around for the person who had spoken to me.

But after several minutes of looking around as I continued to follow Edward, I could not find the person who had spoken to me.

"Why can't I find that voice?" I say to myself with frustration.

"Because you are looking in the wrong place Winry" the voice suddenly says out of nowhere.

"Wait-where are you, who are you?" I ask desperately, finding it hard to believe that voice was just coming back once I spoke.

"The one who trained Edward and helped him gain the power you've seen him use" the voice says, his tone changing to a slightly serious one.

I then realized, that this person must be in truth, a horrifyingly powerful monster to have made Edward into this.

"THEN ITS YOUR FAULT HE'S LOST HIS MIND AND STARTED KILLING PEOPLE; WHY DID YOU TURN HJIM INTO A MONSTER!" I wail pitifully.

As I wept, Al was in the distance trying to protect innocent bystanders from the destruction created by Edward's reckless pursuit of the Führer.

"Winry-I didn't train him to be a monster at all; I trained him so he can save your world from the threat of Father, and any other horrors your universe might have hidden" the voice says, his tone indicating my accusations of him making Edward a monster had hurt his feelings.

As I thought this over, I decided a simple way to know if he was telling the truth was to see him for myself.

"Who are you really?" I ask, hoping my plan would work.

"Give me a moment, I'll need to use more power to manifest a visible projection of myself into your universe" the voice replies calmly.

Suddenly, there was a crackle of yellow lightning right in front of me. After several seconds, a figure began to materialize.

As his form became more apparent and solid, I realized something; he was barely taller than me. But the most defining aspect of him, was his crazy hair!

It was insane, like a wild jungle had grown out of his head. However, before I could think about the issue any further, he spoke.

"(Sigh) There we go, that's much better" the man says as he moves his arms, as though to test if they worked.

As I noticed a tail swaying behind him, I became suspicious.

"What are you?" I ask worriedly.

As soon as I finished asking the question, he walked over to me and touched my forehead-causing a discharge of some kind of energy.

Instantly, I felt my head fill with memories I'd never seen before; Edward nearly dying, a man just like this one saving his life and passing through The Gate, and meeting countless people I'd never seen before. Then, training with the man in front of me in a strange place called the Hyperbolic Time Chamber for a period spanning…oh my gosh.

Suddenly, the memories stopped flowing into my mind, and the man whom I now knew was named Adam, removed his palm from my head.

"Now do you understand what has transpired since he vanished 3 days ago?" Adam asks as he puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah…I feel guilty for thinking you were to blame; but if it really is his DNA causing this-what can we do?" I reply, beginning to whimper again.

"Truthfully, I could come over there myself and beat him up with 3 limbs behind my back" Adam says as he begins to float and holds 1 leg and his arms behind his back.

"But…you're already here" I reply, feeling confused.

"(Groan) I'm not here physically Winry. (Sigh) I forgot in this universe, not all areas of science had advanced, I've used my powers to project a hologram of myself into your universe-I'm just a collection of organized light particles" Adam explains.

I quickly attempted to grab his hand to see if what he meant was true. As I attempted to do so, my hand passed right through.

"But then…how did you touch me earlier?" I ask, feeling confused.

"I changed myself to Hard Light momentarily; when photons or light particles are given sufficient energy in the right sequence, they can act like solid matter-allowing physical interaction" Adam replies calmly, like that kind of thing was a normal occurrence in his universe.

"Well then why don't you go calm Edward down then; or better yet-knock him out?" I inquire, wondering why he wasn't doing anything but talking to me; one who couldn't aid in battle in any way.

"Because I'm not going to clean up after my student's mistake of giving into his Saiyan Rage and bloodlust for battle; you need to help him" Adam states firmly.

"WHAT CAN I DO! IM JUST A HUMAN; IM NOT A SUPER POWERED SAIYAN LIKE YOU OR EDWARD! WHAT-CAN-I-DO!" I scream, my tone frantic and pissed.

"No-not by battle! Absolutely not-you're not fit for that kind of battle, I know that. I meant use emotions to reach Edward" Adam stutters, surprised that I thought he had insinuated that I fight Edward.

"What do you mean by emotions…how can that help my friend" I say as I look at Adam with surprise.

**Son Adam/Psyagon**

I couldn't believe I had forgotten how much earlier in time I was when I arrived.

"Oh…that's right, forgot that it didn't happen till later in the series" I mutter to myself.

"What was that?" Winry asks curiously, almost hearing my question.

"Oh never mind, but Winry-surely you knew that Edward cares about you" I say, hoping to get back to the original task of having her help calm my former student down.

"Of course he does, he's my best friend" Winry replies as she stares at Edward worriedly.

"No, you don't understand; Edward _REALLY_ cares about you Winry" I argue, putting heavy emphasis on the word really, hoping Winry will catch my drift.

As soon as she heard my sentence, she immediately whipped her head around as though someone had been shot right beside her.

"W-what do you mean Adam?" she replies timidly.

"Think about it; he hates it when you cry-no matter how trivial the situation is, he's always there to support you, and he always does his best to comfort you even if you've upset him. What kind of emotion can possibly allow him to be so kind and give such requited selfless devotion with the kind of attitude he has?" I explain, knowing that this response would be the only thing next to outright telling her that would explain what she needed to do.

**Winry Rockbell**

As I replayed Adam's last statement in my head, I kept thinking about several of the keywords he had used; emotion, kind, requited, selfless…devotion?

"Devotion…(gasp)" I say out loud to myself, realizing what Adam meant at last.

With a nod, Adam began to disappear and fade away.

"You now know what you must do Winry; and by the way…tell Edward once he's calmed down, that the key to restoring his brother's body lies with the necklace he was given by me" Adam says softly.

"I will!" I say, letting him know how grateful I was for being informed of how Edward truly felt about me.

"Good luck Winry-help Edward defend this world and keep it a pristine place" Adam says just before his hologram vanishes.

With that, I turned my attention to the direction of more explosions and bursts of light, then broke into a reckless run toward Edward.

**Edward Elric**

As I tried out some new moves on Wrath, screamed in pain; my flame alchemy certainly was on par with Roy's, above it even.

As I boiled out Bradley's eyeballs, I then used my power to heal them and boil them again; I wanted him to suffer for all the innocent people who had died by his hand due to his fellow Homunculus Envy starting the Ishvalan Civil War.

Motionlessly, I engulfed Wrath in flames once again, then healed him as soon as the pain died down, then repeated the cycle.

Suddenly, just before I could do it again for the 100th time-a voice cried out.

"ED!" Winry screams.

I turned my head and saw she was coming this way. "Stay out of this, you don't know what's going on-I'll explain after I kill this joke of a king" I say as I snap my fingers and cause titanium chains to pop out of the ground and bind Bradley to the point of immobility.

"No Ed, I do understand-please don't do this" she begs, crying and hoping I won't kill anymore innocent people.

"Don't do this?" I ask myself out loud, trying to see if I had misheard what she said.

"Don't do this!" I bellow as I turn to face her.

She immediately drew in a sharp gasp of breath and her tears doubled.

"DO YOU KNOW WHAT THESE ASSHOLES HAVE PLANNED FOR AMESTRIS!" I roar as I snap my fingers and levitate the chains with Wrath over to, hanging him right in front of her.

"LOOK IN HIS EYES; ESPECIALLY THE ONE WITH THE OUROBOROS TATOO PUPIL!" I rage, hoping she'd understand.

She looked into his eyes, and seemed to understand what I meant…until she said, "That doesn't make a difference; he needs to be given a chance. And you killed innocent soldiers who don't know what their leader truly is"

I was filled with anger that she was wanting to forgive the monster who had caused the events that made the murderer scar become a killer of state alchemists-including myself nearly.

"You expect me to forgive this monster! ITS HIM AND HIS HOMUNCULI PALS FAULT THAT THE VILLAIN SCAR TRIED TO KILL ME AND AL!" I roar, making the earth rumble and shake.

I then smacked Wrath in the back of the head with such force it broke the chains and knocked him to the ground.

"Don't you get it Winry? I'm doing this so the country can finally be safe; as long as these Homunculi live-they are a threat to everyone" I explain firmly, hoping she'd get the point.

**Winry Rockbell**

Edward wasn't getting my point; I had to snap him out of it before he could possibly destroy the rest of the planet in a fit of rage.

"You're calling Scar a murderer?" I ask, my voice nearly a whisper.

"LOOK AROUND YOU EDWARD; YOU'RE MORE A MONSTER THAN ANYONE AT THE MOMENT BUT FATHER!" I scream.

Flinching from the force of my fierce tone, Edward looked around…and began to realize what he had done.

Immediately, his eyes became less fierce, and his knees became wobbly.

"I…I…I killed them…hundreds of innocent people" Edward stammers as he begins to cry.

I quickly ran to hug him, knowing he had finally been broken from the rage he was in.

"Oh Ed…its ok; you weren't yourself when it happened-I don't blame you" I say soothingly, trying to make him stop crying.

However, the peace was cut short, as I suddenly felt an intense pain in my right shoulder.

As I turned around, the pain only increased more, as I realized Bradley had stuck his sword through my shoulder, then a torrent of blood gushed out and I feel to the ground.

**Edward Elric**

As the sword cut Winry, the world began to run in slow motion, and everything else but her fell away.

After what seemed like an eternity, she hit the ground and moaned in pain.

"WINRY!" I howl, horror and fear filling my tone.

Briefly, my horror turned to rage, and I kicked Wrath so hard he began to fly back to Central Command.

To aid his flight, I blasted him with a red burst of Ki into his lower extremities, causing his velocity to double, then crashed into the Central Command Center.

"WINRY-NO!" I scream, as I turn my attention back to her.

I quickly rushed to her at near light speeds and held her head.

"Winry…are you ok?" I cry, as I notice the wound.

She wasn't responding.

"WINRYYYYY!" I bellow, causing the planet to rumble violently.

I quickly used my alchemy, paying the price with a tiny bit of my own life force (an equal amount compared to normal humans) to heal her.

"Winry…speak to me" I plea.

Quietly, her eyes opened (I could hear the muscles that open them move) and looked into mine intensely.

"Edward-" she begins, still weak from the blow to her subclavian artery.

"Yes-what is it Winry?" I ask, my mind finally cleansed of the rage that had filled me entirely.

"I…I know how you feel about me…and…I…I love you too Edward" she continues, blowing me away.

Immediately, my gaze became filled with tears.

"That's why I lost it when we were attacked, I thought someone might accidentally shoot you, or one of them might have been the Homunculi Envy; I'm sorry that I killed those people…the old me never would have done that…the human me" I explain, trailing off as I remembered how I was once human.

Then my eyes filled with tears and I turned my face away from Winry's and wept.

"Edward…why are you looking away?" she asks kindly.

I couldn't answer her I was so stricken with grief and guilt.

**Winry Rockbell**

I could practically feel his pain, like a throbbing irregular heartbeat; his sadness emanating from him in waves. Why was he so sad?

"Edward…why aren't you looking at me?" I ask, wondering if I had upset him somehow.

"Because I'm a…(Sniffles) I'M A MONSTER!" Edward sobs.

I felt deeply hurt that Edward had taken me seriously; I only said it to help snap him out of his rage.

"I killed hundreds in less than 30 minutes, and…I didn't even listen to their cries of mercy…most were innocent, and how many did I blow to oblivion using that Big Bang Attack on Wrath?" Edward says, his tone depressed and downcast.

As I stared at him sadly, he wept and replied, "That's something I would have never done when I was human"

I couldn't bare to see him crying, so I did the one thing I knew could cheer him up now that we knew how we felt about each other.

I grabbed his head and pulled it to face mine, then-as gently as possibly, I planted a kiss full on the lips of Edward Elric.

**Edward Elric**

As I was kissed by the girl I loved so much, I felt the world around me melt away; nothing else mattered at this moment.

I realized she truly didn't think I was a monster, and truly loved me; so I deepened the kiss.

However, the moment had to end sooner or later, and thankfully it was my brother instead of anyone else who came running over to me.

"Brother, what happened? What were those powers, and how did you do Alchemy without even moving?" Al badgers; he was still my brother.

"Al…lets finish up things here, and go talk to Colonel Mustang" I reply as I help Winry up, who'd finally regained her strength after being healed.

I decided that since the whole of Central Command had seen my display of ferocity and power, it was time to stop acting like I was the same old Edward. So without further ado, I motionlessly created a gigantic series of pillars that moved in an escalator like fashion, and began to carry us to Eastern Command.


	11. Chapter 11: THATS

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 11: The Homunculi (Attempt To) Strike Back**

**Roy Mustang**

More paperwork; didn't this stuff ever get to a point where it levels off? I had just begun to assign Fuery to handle the first wave, when I heard a huge rumbling rock the area, and it was getting louder.

"SIR! You'd better come see this" Riza yells as she bursts in with Havoc, Falman, and Breda at her side.

I quickly followed them outside, and was astonished at the sight I saw.

There was a gargantuan series of pillars, and they stretched farther than the eye could see!

Then a loud familiar voice called out, "HEY MUSTANG! DID YA MISS ME?"

The air quickly was filled with a heavy crumbling sound, and the pillar right in front of me began to lower to my level. On top of the pillar were 3 figures; Alphonse Elric, Winry Rockbell, and a very tall and muscular figure with extremely long, unbraided blonde hair.

"HEH HAAAAAY! Whats happening Colonel?" the man says as he quickly grabs my hand and give it a powerful handshake, causing my bones to crack.

"(Groan) Do I know you?" I reply as I quickly slip my hand loose from his insanely powerful grip.

"You remember this guy don't you?" Winry asks anxiously.

"Colonel, don't you recognize your old pal? Its me Edward-The Full Metal Alchemist!" the man says with a smile.

(Crickets chirping) "No, sorry-you can't be Edward, he died 3 days ago in an explosion near the abandoned 5th Laboratory in Central; I should know-I attended his funeral" I say as I remember how much that kid brightened up this dull place.

"Well perhaps this can convince you otherwise, cause I do believe that everyone says it was vaporized in the explosion" the man says as he hands me a silver state alchemist pocket watch.

I quickly opened it up, and nearly flipped out; the same writing was scratched inside as the day Edward had made it.

"No…it can't be" I stammer, dropping the watch with a loud thud. I quickly fell to the floor with it soon after.

"Its me, I'm alive; don't freak out man" Edward says in a calm fashion as he offers a hand to help me up.

I timidly took the hand of my best soldier, whom I'd thought died a fiery death.

"So what gives; how did you survive the explosion?" Falman asks as he looks Edward in the eyes.

"That's the funny thing; he didn't survive" Alphonse laughs.

Immediately, we all fell down.

"He didn't!" Riza says with shock as she scrambles to her feet.

"Yeah, he was actually gonna die; but then-well…it's a long story, maybe its best we discuss it after we help Al get his soul back in his body we recently recovered" Winry says.

"You finally got your body back from the other side? Congratulations Al!" Havoc says as he pats Alphonse's armor back.

"Um…well that's kinda the problem…you see…we got my body back…but I'm still stuck in the armor-cause we don't know what might happen if we damage the blood seal" Alphonse replies nervously.

"So let me get this straight-you have your body back here on Earth…but yet you're still stuck in the armor?" Falman says as he eyes Alphonse with a tactical gaze.

"Yeah, we're at a loss as to how to get Al's soul back in his body without something freaky possibly happening; like The Truth taking Al back to the other side, meaning I'll have to get really rough" Edward says as he clenches his fists and grits his teeth.

"What are you going to do if he does that?" I ask, wondering what Edward might have planned.

Edward promptly gritted his teeth even harder, and his eyes suddenly became filled with…a powerful killer's rage.

"If he tries to take Al away from me again-I'll…I'LL (Growling)" Edward snarls, a strange energy surrounding him without warning.

Suddenly, the ground began to quake wildly.

"Oh no-EVERYBODY OUT NOW!" Winry screams, panic in her tone.

I was about to ask why, until I saw the strange aura become golden and start creating a windstorm inside my office.

Soon, everyone was screaming as we ran for our lives to the outside, before doing so, I ordered an immediate evacuation of the Eastern Command Center.

After several minutes, everyone had piled out through the emergency alchemy doors Al had drawn and made.

Then, defying all explanation, a gargantuan pillar of what seemed to be red energy burst through the roof as Edward's voice bellowed with earth quaking intensity, "I'LL KILL THAT BASTARD!"

As the enormous pillar of energy climbed toward the Heavens, Edward issued a…primal roar of rage, causing the pillar to increase in width and power, blowing the entire roof off the Eastern Command Center.

After several more seconds, the pillar dwindled away, and the entire headquarters collapsed like a flimsy house of cards.

Soon after the command center had fallen apart, Edward walked out toward us; but…WHOA! HE HAD CHANGED BIG!

He wasn't the same anymore, his once light blonde hair had darkened to a very blackish brown, and his body was totally ripped; to top it all off, every part of his upper body but his chest was coated with…WITH RED FUR! And his irises were the same deep crimson red, with golden pupils.

"Sorry, I lost control again; please don't ever mention the Truth taking away my brother again Mustang" Edward says firmly.

We were all on the ground, cowering in fear, except for Winry-who ran to Ed and hugged him.

"Take it easy Ed, its ok-no one can ever take anything from you again; you've suffered enough" Winry says as she reaches up and bends his head down to her level, where they promptly engaged in a very passionate kiss-leaving all of us quite shocked.

**Edward Elric**

As I kissed Winry, I felt my rage just drain away-my new calm demeanor returning at last.

"(Sigh) Thank you Winry-I needed that" I reply as I hug her back.

"Uh…would anyone mind filling me in here!" Mustang yells angrily.

"Oh, ha ha-sure-sorry about that Colonel; well you see after that explosion at the 5th Laboratory after it had been blown up-" I begin.

After a good half hour, I'd finally filled everyone in on what had happened to me during these last 3 years (3 days for them).

"You're 18 now? No Wonder you got so much bigger" Riza says as she stares in amazement.

"Yeah, you got huge" Breda comments.

"No kidding" Fuery adds, having joined us after exiting the building.

"Well if you're so powerful, can you repair the command center _YOU_ DESTROYED!" Roy yells angrily.

"Sure, that's an easy one-just give me a few seconds" I say calmly, not feeling threatened by Mustang anymore.

I quickly snapped my fingers, causing huge arcs of Alchemic energy to erupt all around the burnt and shattered remains of Eastern Command.

After about 10 seconds, the entire place just reassembled like magic, as Alchemy can do.

As I turned around to face my friends, everyone had grown deathly silent in awe.

"Wow!" Havoc blurts out flatly, his eyes nearly bulging out of his sockets as he breaks the silence.

"So, what should we do now brother?" Alphonse asks as he sits down.

I was thinking the same thing too as I realized we were no closer to finding an answer to getting Al back in his body than before.

"Wait, Adam talked to me before-told me about an important message to give you about the jewel" Winry blurts as she touches my shoulder.

Immediately, I looked at her with skepticism.

"How did you even communicate with him?" I ask, my question one of complete simplicity.

"Through a hologram projected from your necklace" Winry replies as she points to it.

In an instant, my demeanor changed and I was at her side in a flash.

"Then quick, tell me, what did he say about the necklace!" I yell, shaking Winry wildly.

"Calm down and stop shaking me" she replies, her tone warbling from the vibrations.

After calming down and ceasing the shaking, she replied, "The key to restoring your brother's body-lies in the necklace"

Grabbing the stone around my neck and looked at it with a most intense gaze.

"So this stone can cure my brother…but how?" I ask myself as I analyze the glowing multicolored gem.

**Envy**

As I got word from Father to go topside and investigate the rumblings, I quickly sprinted up into the Central Command Center and prepared to inspect the damage.

However, when I reached the surface-I nearly fell over.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!" I bellow, taking the guise of General Edison.

"Edison sir! A strange man appeared in Central; arrest was attempted, but he flew into a rage and laid waste to central-murdering several hundred people like one stomps cockroaches. He even brought the Führer near the point of death" one of the soldiers says as he limps over to me.

"Strange man eh? What did he look like?" I ask, wondering who could have possibly caused this level of devastation.

"Well…he was tall, muscular, and had very long blonde hair" the soldier moans, as he sits down to rest his wounds.

"Long blonde hair…what did his face look like?" I inquire, getting a bad feeling in my gut.

"He…(Coughs up blood) he looked like…The Full Metal Alchemist" the soldier wheezes weakly.

Immediately, I felt my stomach drop.

"But…but he died 3 days ago…that's impossible; IMPOSSIBLE I SAY!" I scream, beginning to panic.

"No…I'm afraid its not impossible Edison" Wrath says as he limps over to me.

I instantly killed the dying soldier so I could talk with Wrath privately.

"So the Full Metal Pipsqueak is alive is he?" I reply, not feeling so unnerved now knowing Wrath was alive.

"He never died, somehow-he went to another place after that huge explosion, and gained a power beyond even Father's current level" Wrath says with total seriousness.

"No way…I don't believe it! I'm getting the others and killing Edward now; I DON'T CARE WHAT HE HAS TO DO WITH FATHER'S PLAN!" I bellow.

I instantly changed into a giant bird, and began to fly toward the east, where Edward was likely to have gone.

**Führer King Bradley/Wrath**

As usual, Envy jumped headlong into battle, with no patience or attempt to see his surroundings; which is how he missed the half vaporized Central Command Center.

"(Sigh) Guess I'll have to go alert Father of this emergency myself" I say as I begin to walk back inside.

**Lust**

As I sat on the barstool, enjoying some smooth wine, I heard a very loud squawking in a recognizable Morse code.

"Excuse me" I say as I trace my finger under the bartender's chin, causing him to shudder in delight.

As I walked around the corner, Envy landed and changed to human form.

"Lust-where's Gluttony?" he asks in a hushed voice,

"Behind you" I reply wryly.

Gluttony then tapped Envy's shoulder and made him jump.

"YEESSH! Cut it out Gluttony" Envy says as he slaps away his hand.

"Sorry" he replies sheepishly.

"What is it you want Envy?" Pride adds as he appears suddenly from the shadows.

"The life of Edward Elric" Envy says harshly.

"I'm afraid that's against Father's rules; Edward is a necessary sacrifice for his ultimate plan" Pride retorts.

"SCREW THAT BLOWHARD AND WHAT HE WANTS; THE FULL METAL PIPSQUEAK NEARLY KILLED WRATH!" Envy roars.

After we all heard this, we were rather shocked.

"Impossible; no one is good enough to take down the old geezer with the Ultimate Eye" I retort, finding it hard to believe.

"Wanna see the condition he was in when I found him?" Envy says, before shifting to imitate how Father looked when last he saw him.

"Whoa…Edward did that to him?" Pride says with disbelief.

"Apparently so; heard it straight from the Führer's mouth" Envy says as he shifts back to his normal form.

"Envy-you've got an army; we'll leave immediately" Pride says flatly.

Almost instantly, we were enveloped in a shroud of shadow, and vanished along with it.

**Edward Elric**

Having used my powers to create a hi-tech lab like the one Adam had shown me in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, similar to those that were used at the Capsule Corp. compound, I'd spent over 20 minutes using several machines to observe the gem in every known wavelength of light, inside and out; but all searches were proving utterly inconclusive.

"(Growl) Whats so special about this rock that requires it to be so utterly incapable of being operable!" I yell angrily, making the immediate area quake mildly.

Rushing over and sensing my distress, Winry embraced me

"Calm down Edward, you're trying too hard" Winry states while hugging me.

I immediately felt calmer as she hugged the anger out of me.

"Right; ok-so what could the secret to this mysterious gemstone Adam gave me be?" I ask aloud, reiterating the importance of discovering how to make it work.

"Well maybe its got a secret button that only works if you press it right, and is designed so well that you can't see it" Falman suggests.

"Trust me, if there was a button-I'd have seen it by now; this equipment allows me to see every last detail down to the atomic level" I argue, knowing I'd seen not even a slight imperfection yet; that was odd to tell the truth.

"Perhaps it does not use any conventional scientific methods at all; perhaps it works through the use of alchemy" Roy comments.

"Yeah…-" I begin as I stare at the gem with iron willed intent.

"-Or something even more incredible even" I continue as I become entranced by the gem's ethereal beauty.

Suddenly, I felt a very odd energy presence…Homunculi!

"They're here!" I shout, feeling angered as they just appeared out of the blue.

Bursting through the lab door, I looked around for their specific locations, and found they were…right below us.

With flash of pitch-black energy that appeared from nowhere, the 4 Homunculi arrived on the scene.

"Nice to see you again…Full Metal Pipsqueak" Envy says as he smirks evilly.

"Envy, I wouldn't take another step if I were you…might lost your head" I say as I smile wickedly.

"Don't make threats you can't follow-(SNAP) Envy starts, before I zip over to his head and rip it off, creating a fountain of blood.

As his head rolled on the ground, its last words were, "-through with" before it disintegrated to dust.

The other Homunculi were speechless, as they stared at me with fear and awe.

"(Stammering) He…with the head…didn't even move…-" Selim/Pride stutters with hopeless shock.

"Care to surrender before I rip your Philosopher's stones from your bodies and crush them into powder?" I say as I crack my knuckles.

"Grrrr…you don't scare us Fullmetal; GET HIM PRIDE!" Envy yells as his head regenerates.

Without warning, a flurry of dark tendrils reached out for me. However, they were ineffective, as I simply flung my hands forward and grabbed all 12 of the shadowy tentacles.

"No…that's just not possible" Lust says in a hushed tone.

"Don't you dare tell me what isn't possible!" I bellow, making a huge stone leg boot her in the chest with unimaginable force, sending her high into the air.

I then tossed Pride away like a broken toy, and directed my attention to Envy.

"YOU! You're going down Shape-Shifter" I yell as I call out the spike haired Homunculus.

As Envy gritted his teeth, I noticed something disturbing.

HE WAS SMILING!

"Heh; you didn't really think this is my true form did you Fullmetal?" Envy taunts.

Suddenly, he began to bulge, and several limbs sprouted out from his sides, and a tail erupted from his back.

After several seconds, he stood before me in his true form.

"So, now are you scared…Fullmetal?" Envy snorts derisively.

With a snap of my fingers, I proved him wrong 100 times over, as a crisscrossing series of spikes impaled him from all angles beneath his belly.

"OOWWWWWWAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" he moans, spewing blood from his mouth like a river a he writhed in agony.

"Not in the least you monster" I state flatly, as I turn my attention toward Gluttony and Lust.

"Its your turn you abominations" I say as my smile curves wickedly.

"Indeed…TAKE THIS!" Lust says as she spears me through the shoulders with her Ultimate Spear tips.

However, minimal levels of blood spurted from the wounds as I smirked.

She gasped in horror as I simply gripped the tips of her fingers and jerked them out of my wounds.

"That all you got sister?" I laugh, completely mocking her once fearsome powers.

**Lust**

What he was doing was impossible; no one could be that powerful-not even Father.

"(Growl) You're different; why are you taller and more muscular-and how can you move so fast, yet strike so hard?" I inquire, hoping he might unintentionally divulge a secret weakness.

"(Chuckle) Perhaps you didn't notice this, but I'm not exactly human anymore myself" Edward says as he jerks his thumb down to the belt around his waist, as it begins to move.

Wait a second…MOVE!

"That's not belt" I whisper in horror, as the furry belt thing unraveled and began to flit behind him.

"No-its my tail; and my code name is no longer Fullmetal" Edward continues calmly as he smiles.

Gluttony hid behind me in fear, and began to whimper as Edward assumed an extremely menacing stance.

"I' am now to be called…THE ALCHEMIC SAIYAN!" Edward roars, causing the very land to rumble as if in the throes of tectonic upheaval.

I couldn't figure out how he was so powerful still; he must have turned himself into some super chimera with secret friends he'd met recently

Gluttony then yelped and attempted to dig a hole to hide in. However, before he'd even gotten an inch into the soil, Edward flashed over faster than the eye could see and hoisted him into the air by his ankle like a rag doll.

"Going somewhere chompy?" Edward jokes.

"(Crying) Please…have mercy; I'm just hungry-and Father demands I do what he says or I'll be returned to my stone form" Gluttony wails.

Suddenly, Edward's face changed from that of a super powered, cold-blooded killer…to that of a curious and caring gentleman.

"So you're saying you do this not of your own will, but are forced to kill and do criminal acts by Father?" Edward asks sincerely, wanting to know the truth.

"YES! HE'LL KILL US IF WE DON'T OBEY!" Gluttony sobs, his face streaming with tears.

Edward suddenly dropped Gluttony like a lead weight on his head, and began to float in a meditative stance.

"How odd…from what my mentor taught me-you were all heartless monsters who delighted in the destruction of humans" Edward says with surprise.

Pride then stepped forth and his expression softened.

"We have no choice; Father demands obedience…or death" he says as his face becomes filled with the sad and fearful look of a hurt child.

Suddenly, Edward lowered to the ground and stood on his feet, looking at us with intense scrutiny-especially to me.

"What would you say…if I knew of a way to make you all human, yet retain your powers?" Edward announces plainly.

His declaration shocked all of us speechless as our mouths hung open in awe.


	12. Chapter 12: Union Of The Divided

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 12: Union Of The Divided**

**Envy**

As Edward made his declaration, I felt intense anger and rage; how dare he claim he can perform such an impossible task and wave the idea in my face like a beer in front of a drunkard.

"YOU'RE A CRUEL JERK-ASS!" I bellow, causing everyone to stare at me in surprise.

"No one can do that. its just not possible!" I scream, my anger still fueling my responses.

Suddenly, the walking suit of armor boldly strode over to my side and began to bend down.

"What if he can Envy?" the armor kid says as he kneels next to me.

I thought about smashing his helmet…but then I remembered how powerful and fast Edward had become and decided against it.

"Shouldn't you trust what my brother claims before you doubt and attempt to deface it?" Alphonse says calmly.

"Yeah; its not like Edward will demand anything unreasonable in for this favor" the girl adds as she stands beside Edward.

I then broke free from the spike trap I'd been imbedded in, and returned to my humanesque form.

"HOW COULD THAT BE POSSIBLE! I'M A HOMUNCULUS-I WAS NEVER A PERSON, I HAVE NO SOUL, HOW CAN I POSSIBLY BE CHANGED INTO A HUMAN!" I scream.

Everyone stared at me in awe as I had an emotional breakdown in front of the humans, who looked down on me with pity.

"No-NO; DON'T LOOK DOWN, DON'T YOU DARE LOOK DOWN ON ME YOU PATHETIC CREATURES!" I wail, feeling terribly humiliated by the fact that I was powerless before a single man, utterly incapable of doing anything to change the situation.

Some of them looked at me like they were…sad; as if they felt terrible that I felt the way I did.

"Stop that-STOP LOOKING AT ME!" I roar, as my humiliation begins to hurt, and I fall to my knees with eyes near the point of watering.

However, out of all the people here, suddenly-Edward Elric walked forth and put his hand on my shoulder.

"Envy-" Edward begins.

As I leaned my head up to look him in the eye, I saw his expression was no longer that of a warrior…but of a kind child.

"-You're jealous of humans…aren't you?" Edward asks as he looks into my eyes with the most caring stare I'd ever seen.

At that point, I snapped; losing all restraint and reservation in my feelings-I began to punch Edward in the face.

"HUMANS-HUMANS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WEAK, PREDICTABLE, AND EASY TO MANIPULATE; WHY DO YOU MOCK ME!" I wail, as my tears begin to flow freely now.

"WHY DAMN YOU-WHY!" I sob, as I fall back to my knees and sob, aching for that same kinship the humans have with each other.

"Why do you get to enjoy those warm, flowery, and happy feelings…(Sniffle) when I don't?" I weep, feeling terrible and alone; none of the other Homunculi understood me.

"The worst part is…it had to be _you_…you of all people…that figured it out-Edward Elric" I cry, as I break down right in front of my mortal enemies.

I turned my gaze back up to Edward, whose eyes now seemed to be full of what appeared to be…regret.

"Why can't I enjoy those same emotions?" I reply as I sob.

Suddenly, Edward knelt closer; I was expecting to be torn apart by Edward…however, what he did next, I would have never imagined someone like him even considering doing in a hundred years.

Instead of smiting me where I knelt…HE HUGGED ME!

"Because you never asked" Edward whispers as he embraces me like a true father.

I was so shocked that I couldn't speak, instead silently crying as Edward just hugged me, causing me to be filled with…a very odd and warm feeling, causing my crying to stop, leaving tear stains on my face.

"W-what?" I whimper, not understanding for a minute why Edward had spared me.

"If you truly desire companionship…all you ever had to do was ask" Edward say as he continues to hug me.

Without warning, the girl came over and embraced me in addition to Edward's hug.

"No one should ever have to feel alone and unloved" Winry says as she pats my back.

Then, to top it all off-the armor boy Alphonse joined in the hug fest and embraced me along with Edward and Winry.

"If you don't want to be evil and alone…you don't have to be…you're more human than you think Envy" Alphonse states as his sun warmed armor body holds onto me softly.

This had to be a prank, a gag! They were setting me up so I could be destroyed.

However…for some reason…I couldn't find the strength to voice my opinion.

But…but why? That is what I believed isn't it, that they were tricking me?

Yet…for some reason, deep down…I didn't believe that; they were honest, caring, and kind…as if I had never tried to harm any of them. They were treating me…like I was…human.

"Why…why are you being so kind to me?" I ask the trio, my voice sad and confused.

"Because its not your fault that you've been so cruel and malicious; no one ever showed you any true kindness and love until now" Winry says as they all continue to hold me close.

BLAST IT! What could possibly make them forgive me, even after all I had done? Why would they ever, how could they ever…

That's when it clicked; those 2 words the girl had told me. Kindness…love…they were showing me both…they were being merciful.

"D-don't you hate me for what I did; don't you have any desire to tear me apart Edward?" I ask, my tone tearful and weak like an abused child-which ironically was what I seemed to act like the equivalent of.

"We want to…but we can't. You're repentant of your actions, and also because of the way Father treated you; I'd have turned out like you if I'd never had a family that loved me" Alphonse says as they all continue to hug me.

That's when I understood it all; why humans were able to be so powerful, even at their most pitiful…it was because of love.

"I…I…-" I start, my eyes welling up like a puddle.

Then, I lost control and full on bawled, "I WANT TO BE HUMAN!"

**Winry Rockbell**

As the teenage-like homunculus sobbed bitterly, I almost began crying myself.

"What will it take to be human?" Envy weeps.

I then motioned for Edward and Al to back up so I could have some room.

"But you're already human Envy…at least in here" I say soothingly as I point to his chest.

Envy then looked down to his chest in confusion.

"But…but I don't have a heart…just a Philosopher's Stone" he says sadly.

I then hugged him again with warmth and love.

"A true heart isn't physical; I could have automail from my neck down, and I'd still have a one" I say as I give Envy a warm smile.

Edward then laid a hand on Envy's shoulder again and looked him in the eyes.

"Envy…you've always had a choice…now is the time to decide who you will stand with; the so called "weak" humans, who forgave you and showed love and kindness-" he begins, pointing to me and Alphonse.

"-Or Father who doesn't understand, love, or even think about your feelings and well-being" he continues.

For several minutes, Envy looked back and forth between the Homunculi and us-as if unable to choose.

However, Edward soon made it clear why Envy was having difficulty choosing as he proclaimed, "You're afraid of what Father might have the other Homunculi do to you…is that right?"

Immediately, Envy nodded like a frightened child.

"If you join us, I promise you…no one will lay a hand on you" Edward says as he offers out a hand as a gesture of love and goodwill.

**Envy**

I couldn't believe my ears; here I was-at the total mercy of Edward Elric…yet he was offering to protect and care for my safety.

"Y-you'd do that…for me?" I croak, my voice weak with apprehension.

Edward nodded and smiled, and so did Winry and the other humans…except for Mustang; but that was normal-he rarely smiled from what I knew.

As I saw how serious Edward was, I realized I had nothing to lose.

With a slow thrust of my arm, I took Edward's hand…and it felt good.

With a smile, I began to cry again-and hugged Edward…like the father I'd never had.

"Thank you…Edward Elric" I say as I embrace him and cry tears of joy.

Edward hugged me back and patted my head, showing me the truth…humans weren't weak after all.

**Lust**

This was absolutely appalling!

Here was Envy, one of our strongest and most talented Homunculi; AND HE WAS WEEPING AND HUGGING A HUMAN!

"Tch, you're a spineless wimp Envy; I cant believe you'd be swayed by such pathetic antics these humans used" I spit, feeling ashamed to work with Envy.

Suddenly however, Envy stood up-and he ran to me.

However, instead of talking to me-the next thing I knew…

(SLICE)

I felt a hole in my stomach, and blood pouring from it.

"(Gurgling) E-Envy…w-what have you (cough) done?" I groan, the pain excruciating and unbearable.

Envy then dug his blade arm deeper in me, and replied, "Coming to my senses"

Suddenly, he cut me straight up from my stomach to my skull, nearly splitting me in half.

"Taste the pain Lust; you're going to be feeling a lot of it if you cross my friends again" he says as he casually strides over to Edward's side.

As I began to heal from the attack, a scowl painted my face and I prepared my ultimate spear claws for attack…until I saw Edward's palm.

It was…glowing!

Inside his grasp, was a shining orb of light-with intense energy radiating off of it.

"You'd better stand down Homunculus" Edward states, his tone completely saturated with anger.

Gluttony stared at the orb and began to shake.

"What is that?" he whimpers.

"Lets just say, that if I let this energy sphere loose…this place will light up brighter than Mustang's Flame Alchemy" Edward says with a smirk.

I was puzzled, what was he trying to say-that Colonel Mustang's Flame Alchemy couldn't match his new power? ABSURD!

"Allow me to demonstrate" Edward says as he smiles wickedly.

Suddenly, a pillar erupted beside me, nearly carrying poor Pride to the top.

As it kept growing, in height and width, I was astonished-the boy hadn't even moved to create this monstrosity…just like Father.

"Behold this 900 foot column of Earth; majestic and awe-inspiring isn't it?" Edward states as we gawked at it like he stated.

"Well that's not half as shocking as this; BIG BANG KAMEHAMEHA!" he roars as he suddenly moves his hands in front of his chest and the orb gets brighter.

Suddenly, a mighty gust of wind burst forth, accompanying the blast that came before it. As it flew straight at the pillar, we instinctively dodged its path.

As the beam struck the column, we knew we'd made the right choice; as it was instantly incinerated like dry brush-and the blast kept firing, now going at an upward angle into the sky.

It kept climbing till it was out of sight beyond the clouds.

Then, with a burst of light brighter than the sun itself…the heavens lit up, followed by an earth shattering rumble that made thunder seem like a whisper.

We were all dead silent with terror, as we saw a blast that could have incinerated all of us in one blow; the power made Father's talents look pale in comparison.

"For those who wish to become human, and give up their past evils-I offer you freedom; join me, and I'll make sure that Father doesn't come within miles of you uninvited" Edward states boldly, furthering angering me.

"I'm joining Edward!" Gluttony screams as he abandons us without a second thought.

"(Groan) We'll be back another day Elrics, mark my words! PRIDE! TAKE US BACK TO CENTRAL!" I scream as I snap my fingers, expecting him to take us away.

However, instead of using his powers, Pride stood there resolutely with firm look in his eyes.

"Well what are you waiting for!" I screech, wondering why Pride just stood there.

"Lust…it's over, we've lost even if we don't agree with the humans and Edward; the truth is we're dust mites to him, and nothing can change that" Pride says solemnly.

With great horror, I saw the truth; that we'd been outclassed entirely, and now had lost our three most powerful members to…whatever Edward had turned into, and the humans!

"Fine, I'll fix you all; you'll be back to fueling his power within moments!" I scream as I extend my fingers to impale all the humans and homunculi.

However, just before I could, I felt all 10 of my fingers snap off and I was snatched up by Edward Elric by my right arm; I hadn't even seen him move!

"Well I'm fixin to send you all the way back to Central lady; arrivederci Lusti!" Edward yells as he swings me with a force unimagined, causing me to be sent flying.

"AAAAUUGGGGGHHHHHHH!" I scream as I sail through the clouds out of viewing range of the motley band of humans.

**Gluttony**

As Edward tossed Lust beyond the horizon, I found new respect and fear for the boy, and bowed to him.

"Forgive me master, I was foolish to ever think that Father was powerful enough to lead as a human can" I plead, hoping he'd accept my groveling.

"Easy big guy, easy; for starters you don't have to grovel" Edward says calmly.

I quickly got back to my feet and stood there as my stomach rumbled, I was hungry.

"Second, I'm not a human anymore" Edward says as he sits down, apparently to make himself seem less intimidating than he had now become.

"Then what are you?" Pride asks with child-like curiosity.

Edward apparently had not been expecting this, but he saw how hungry I seemed, so he waved his hand and the grass beside me turned into bread.

"It's a long story, get comfy guys" Edward says with a smile.


	13. Chapter 13 Catastrophic Conundrum

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 13: Catastrophic Conundrum**

**Envy**

As Edward wove his tale of the travel to another universe, he showed us incredible things by manipulating light, and telling stories of people with so much power, the very fabric of existence itself bent to their will. Humans that without alchemy, surpassed Father in might. And a being so powerful…he was, in all sense of the word…a god among mortal men; the mighty Psyagon. It was he who had prevented our realm, and countless others from becoming dark, shadowy worlds, filled with nothing but monsters and pure evil. After several hours, we were finally caught up, and realized just how powerful Edward could become, even considering how mighty he was already.

"So…you have the power to use alchemy on a global scale?" Selim asks brightly, his face full of both excitement and fear.

"Yes, my master Psyagon taught me as much about alchemy as the Truth itself knows, but unlike Father or my dad, Van Hohenheim, I cannot break the Law of Equivalent Exchange due to there being no souls in me but my own" Edward says, with no hint of jealousy or envy in his voice.

"Then how can you perform those incredible moves?" I respond, still confused as to how one can create bursts of energy with the equivalent power of a volcanic eruption.

"My Ki levels are far greater than any human, Saiyans are naturally born and designed for fighting, even our minds are fine tuned to be battle adept from birth. It is because of our genetics that Saiyans are so powerful and skilled, some more than others, but all have the potential to be world breakers with Ki alone, something not even a homunculi could hope to accomplish" Edward says as he holds a glowing orb of the aforementioned raw life energy in his hand.

"So that's Life Force energy?" Fuery says as he points to the glowing orb.

"Yes, its destructive power is unparalleled, with no equal; this orb alone could reduce the tallest mountain to rubble, and its my own natural energy" Edward states, as if it were a simple, trivial fact.

As we all marveled at this raw power Edward now had, I couldn't help but feel jealous, but I quickly remembered how he had given me a second chance, and immediately suppressed my desire, when I was special enough already.

"What I want to know is…how are you gonna get Alphonse back in his body" Mustang blurts, shattering the calm.

Upon hearing this, Edward's smug self-satisfactory grin dropped like an anchor.

"AW DAMN IT! I'M STILL NO CLOSER TO FIGURING THAT OUT!" Ed screams, once again causing the ground to shake, rattle, and roll.

"Calm down Ed, we'll figure it out" Winry says as she gives him a peck on the cheek, which I couldn't help but wince as I watched.

"(Growl) SHIT! There's gotta be someone who can figure out how this thing works!" Edward screams, causing the Ki orb to detach from his grip and fly straight toward Alphonse.

"AAAAAHHHH!" Al screams as he knocks his own head off to prevent it from being vaporized in the orb's path.

Faster than a bullet, it whizzed into the sky, and just as it went out of sight, it detonated, giving off 10,000 times more light than Roy Mustang's Flame Alchemy.

"BROTHER! Have some restraint, neither us nor our world are as durable as the one you trained in to use that kind of power; DAD WAS NEVER THAT RECKLESS!" Alphonse screams, as he grabs his helmet and holds it in his hands.

"Oh gee, I'm sorry Al, I guess you're right. I _do_ need to have more restraint. I guess that my emotional state doesn't count, just because I'm in a hair-tearing turmoil, over the fact that…oh maybe…YOU MIGHT BE STUCK IN THAT STUPID SUIT OF ARMOR FOR ALL ETERNITY!" Edward screams, making all kinds of weird faces, and one that terrified me when he mentioned his brother being stuck in the armor.

As the ground shook violently from Edward's emotional rage, Winry ran up and hugged him again.

"Ok ok, relax Edward, we'll find a way, even if you gotta go back to the universe you visited" Winry says soothingly.

"I just wish that I could find someone with more intimate knowledge of things outside Alchemy like Father and Hohenheim do…THAT'S IT!" Edward screams, his tone changing from despair to realization.

"What is "it" Ed?" I inquire, becoming increasingly interested.

"Van Hohenheim, our dad, he taught the Xingese Alkahestry. If there's anyone who can help me figure out this necklace, he's the guy" states as he begins to flare his aura.

"Whoa whoa! Calm down Ed; do you even know where your dad is?" Winry yells, apparently wanting to make sure Ed had his head on straight.

"Its not hard to find him; Homunculi have much higher Ki levels than humans, mind you, nowhere near a Saiyan, but enough that against a background of human Ki signals they stand out like a lighthouse" Edward replies with a smile, its distinct curve reminiscent of the one belonging to the Son family he had met.

"Wait…you can sense us!" I scream, realizing the full implications of what I we had all just learned.

"Yes, anywhere you are, no matter where you hide in this world, I can find you Envy, so if you have thoughts of trying to defect back to the Homunculi and return to your old ways, don't even consider it. I'll find you-" he begins.

CHINK! Suddenly, his left hand had been transmuted to 5 times its original size, with foot long, reddish metal nails.

"-And I'll execute you myself" he says coldly. I promptly gulped loudly and nervously, my stomach having dropped and my legs turned to rubber.

"Brother! Relax, you're being too harsh" Al says as he rushes over and puts a hand on my shoulder, attempting to calm me from my terrified state.

"You're right, sorry Envy; Its just…I learned everything from my mentor; he knew of everything Father is up to, what he plans to do" Edward begins solemnly, as if mortified to even speak of the horrors Father was planning, and I wasn't even sure myself.

"Edward…what is this "Father" planning?" Mustang asks flatly, his tone showing he had to know.

**Lust**

Having to run all the way back to Central was a major pain in the ass, but I managed to do so within 3 hours. As I vaulted my way over buildings with my ultimate spears, I catapulted down into the sewers, and made my way to Father's lair, so I could present the bad news before it reached him via the grape vine, which could result in my being returned to stone form.

Rushing to the grand chamber where Father sat, I began to pant, my fatigue finally catching up to me.

"What is it my child?" Father asks flatly, his statement indicating concern, but no inflection in his tone made it unclear to those who did not know him personally.

"Edward…lives…more powerful than you" I gasp, still trying to get my breath.

"Hohenheim's son lives? I was informed by Wrath that he died in the explosion at the remains of the 5th Laboratory three days prior" he remarks, clearly not having gotten word quite yet.

As it would happen, Wrath just burst into the chamber, missing the chance to inform Father moments before I had.

"Father! Edward lives, the child lives!" he yells, clearly in a state of panic, before Father raised his hand to silence him.

"I know, Lust just informed me" he replies calmly.

"But Father…there's more" I continue, causing Father's features to harden from their usual straight form.

"What do you mean Lust?" he begins, hidden anger lacing his voice.

"Edward…has convinced Gluttony, Envy, and Pride to defect to the humans" I finish, hoping Father wouldn't be too awful mad.

His subsequent roar and impaling of me through the stomach upon a giant tile spike indicated otherwise.

"HOW COULD MY OWN CHILDREN BETRAY ME!" he bellows, stomping his foot, and causing a second spike to impale me through the mouth.

After much effort, I managed to tear myself out of the second spike, allowing my head to reform and say, "I'm sorry, I tried to stop them, but Envy actually openly retaliated and spoke for Pride and Gluttony; he made it quite clear that they were through with us"

Immediately, Father's expression softened, and he released the rest of my body from the other spike.

"Very well then, since I' am going to be lower on companions for my grand plan, I'm going to have to fill you in on all the details, and what my vision is" he says as he sits back down and resumes his reclined pose with one hand on the side of his head.

**Edward Elric**

"HE WANTS TO WHAT!" Roy screams with burning rage, as his eyes burn like the sun after hearing what I had explained.

"Yes, he wants to transmute every last civilian of Amestris into a giant Philosopher's Stone so he can open the gateway of this planet, absorb Truth, and become a god" I reiterate, hoping I could get Roy to use that anger to fuel his determination to help me find a way to stop him once we had restored Al to his fleshy body.

"Well what are we waiting for? Lets go get my body, then go find dad so I can get back in it, then fix everything" Alphonse says hurriedly as he rushes to my side and begins tugging on my arm.

"Agreed, guys, we'll be back shortly, until then I'm gonna make sure you're all safe by making a huge Adamantium shell around Eastern Command" I say as I clap my hands and smash the ground to create the huge construct, such powerful metal not as easy for me to do without clapping just yet. After getting the shell fully formed after several seconds, I tested the blast door, just incase Father might come knocking, with a Ki burst powerful enough to vaporize a city. The door still stood.

"OK! WE WON'T BE MORE THAN A DAY AT THE MOST!" I yell, making sure that they could hear me past the foot thick unbreakable metal. "ED!" Winry screams, as she taps her foot. I then realized why she was mad.

"Oh my bad guys, gimme a second to make a blast door" I shout as I snap my fingers to draw out the needed energy from within to manipulate the Adamantium. Placing my finger tips to the surface, lines etched into existence with a flash of light, signaling the creation of a blast door.

"Just set the pass codes yourselves, its protected with Quantum Encryption, no technology exists in this universe that can crack the firewall!" I yell, hoping they'd hear me. I then swooped up Winry and Alphonse, and I teleported down south to Reseembool again.

**Penako**

As I brought another glass of water to Alphonse's body, he greedily sucked it down just like the other 20 he'd drunk within the past 10 minutes.

"Such a powerful thirst, do you need anymore still?" I comment as I take the glass.

"No, I'm good now, thank you granny" he replies cheerfully.

"I can't help but be amazed and confused; if what I remember is correct, Alphonse's soul is bonded to the armor and is out there with Edward now. But if that is the case, then how can you think and move on your own if your soul isn't inside?" I inquire quietly.

"Its something that humans would relegate to the science of biology and neurology. Human's have brains, and they can form imprints and patterns in their chemical pathways, its part of what makes every person unique, different brain shapes and builds, my brain remained in my body when our failed human transmutation occured, and that contains a part of me. But that's not why I' am still able to walk and talk" the body replies, his voice now much stronger since having been given a meal and some food.

"Then how are you able to do it?" I say as I press my curiosity.

A moment of silence presisted between us, Alphonse's body not replying.

"Despite what they think, Alphonse's soul and body are still bound in a way, a tenous string still exists between us, that's how I'm still Alphonse and not another person, we are one and the same" he replies solemnly.

"I take it that there is somehow some bad news to accompany that judging by your face Alphonse" I say with worry.

"Yes, though I' am grateful that Ed rescused me from the realm of Truth, and thus severed the nutrient drain that was needed to keep me alive over there, taking my souless body back to the outside world has created a new problem…cause if this form is destroyed, then Al will never get to return to normal, his vessel will be gone" he explains wistfully.

I gasped at this revelation, knowing how dangerous this situation had made Alphonse's journey to be reunited with his body. None of us had accounted for such a possibility, that his body would be vunerable if removed prematurely from the realm of Truth.

"Let's not think like that, remember, Edward is more powerful than any mortal now, I doubt they can hurt him, let alone anyone he cares about" I snap, helping to make myself not become depressed.

"You're right, no mortal or homunculus could possibly hope to stand to his power, so I guess that as long as none of the bad guys figure out I'm here, they'll have time to figure out a way to reunite us" Al's body says cheerfully.

"That's the spirit, now why don't we go try to get you to walk so you can repair those atrophied muscles?" I ask with a smile.

Swinging his feet out of the bed, he weakly got to his feet and smiled too. "Ok, but let's not go outside, just ot be safe" he answers as he takes a tentative step forward.

"MY BODY!" Alphonse's metallic voice echoes suddenly.

**Winry Rockbell**

Panting with shock, I regained my cool while still hugging Ed tightly as Alphonse strolled up to his body.

"What the hell was that?" I gasp as Alphonse rushes to his body and hugs it.

"Instant Transmission, I locked onto Penako's Ki signature and deconstructed us into photons, then we reassembled here, anyone who can manipulate Ki can learn it" Edward replies casually, like it was normal. But then again, it was normal for him, from what I'd heard, the world he went to far surpassed ours in the weird factor.

"Goodness Gracious Edward! You have to be careful using those powers of yours, you're liable to give someone a heart attack" Penako pants as she catches her breath from the sudden appearance of the three of us.

"Sorry, I just figured I'd lock onto your Ki signal instead of his so I could confront him in a more subtle manner" Edward says with a solemn face.

"Wait, confront who?" I ask with confusion, not understanding his reasoning for teleporting back to Resembool.

"Because he's just a few miles away, heading here" Edward says as he begins to walk toward the stairs.

"Hold on, who's here?" I continue as I press my desire for the reason behind our sudden and jarring mode of transport. Suddenly as we reached the bottom of the stairs, Edward looked deeply into my eyes, and I saw a look that rivaled that which we'd shared earlier, but of the exact opposite end of the emotional spectrum.

"Our father…Hoenheim" Edward replies, his tone a mixture of both dryness and uncertainty.


	14. Chapter 14 Getting A Second Opinion

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 14: Getting A Second Opinion**

**Edward Elric**

As Winry's jaw dropped, I knew she was concerned about me facing my father, whom I'd consistently voiced I hate over the years, now that I was so powerful.

"Ed, are you sure that's a good idea, I mean…you hate your dad, and now, you have all this power-" she starts out, unable to finish her thoughts.

"I know what you want to do brother, please don't, I beg you" Armor Al begs as he bounds down the stairs and lands in front of me.

"No, this has to be done Al" I say calmly as I push him out of the way with a single finger, then walk out the door. After a few minutes of flight high above Resembool, I spotted my father and landed in the tall grass along the road he was taking to our house. I decided that the best way to confront him before explaining how I was alive, that is if he knew I had died, was to pretend that I'd gone into hiding. As he began to get into view, I walked up to the center of the ruins of our old home and knelt down in memory of my mother.

"Hey, who are you?" Hoenheim asks with curiosity.

I smiled as my back was turned to him, then quickly formed my fake-out face by coating my features with my bangs, then changed my voice. "Oh, hello there sir" I reply with a deep, gravelly tone, quite counter to my usual youthful one.

"Why are you at the remains of my wife's old home?" Hoenheim asks accusatively.

"Apologies for my rudeness, I was a childhood friend of Trisha's, so that must mean you're Mr. Elric am I right?" I ask as I stand up and walk over to him.

"Yes, I' am Van Hoenheim; so, you knew my wife?" he asks with an air of suspicion.

"Yes, from the long ago days of my youth, well over 15 years ago, it feels like I only knew her a short while to be honest, so I cherish all the time I spent with her…I just wish I'd had more before she moved on" I reply wistfully.

"I know how you feel, I only knew her for such a short time myself" Hoenheim says sadly.

"Yeah, so why did you return back here Hoenheim?" I ask, making my question sound genuinely curious while still trying to not giggle at how easily I had fooled my father.

"I came to see her grave one last time before I went back on my quest" Hoenheim says, his tone regaining its resolve.

"Quest, what quest?" I press, hoping it was the one Psyagon had shown me he was doing in the anime based on our world.

"Well it's a secret, please don't be offended sir" Hoenheim replies hurriedly. I smirked beneath my hair, knowing now might be a good time to break the small talk and get down to business as we walked back to Penako's.

"That secret wouldn't happen to involve you detaching parts of your philosopher's stone into the ground would it?" I say smugly.

Upon saying that phrase, Hoenheim stopped in his tracks and turned around to face me, just as we reached the front door of the Rockbell home.

"How the hell do you know that?" he says angrily.

"I know a lot of things about you Van Hoenheim, or should I say…Slave 23?" I reply antagonistically, hoping I'd rile him up. His scowl and subsequent leaping at me to pin me to the ground proved me right.

"Who the fuck sent you, it was him wasn't it?" he says angrily as he grips my throat tightly.

"(Chuckles) No, the Dwarf in the Flask doesn't even realize how much I know about him" I chuckle.

"Then who are you? Reveal yourself to me!" he shouts angrily.

"Come now, surely you could recognize your own son-" I begin as I part my hair and unveil my face.

"-Father" I smirk as I see his jaw drop.

"Edward…my little Eddie?" he inquires with a shocked voice, barely able to speak as he jumps off of me.

"Yeah old man, its me alright" I reply as I get up and brush the dirt off my jacket.

"B-but…I heard you were confirmed dead, I came here to see your grave and pay my respects, and to…say good bye one last time" he stammers.

"Yeah, they were a bit too hasty on that public declaration that I was dead, cause I'm back" I say proudly, placing my hands on my hips and standing in a heroic pose. Just then, Winry had to come out and smack me with her wrench on the noggin.

**Van Hoenheim**

"ED! What are you doing!" Winry screams with rage as she stands between me and my son.

"HEY I MAY BE INVINCIBLE NOW BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN I CAN'T FEEL PAIN WHEN MY GUARD IS DOWN, NOW WHY ARE YOU BLOCKING ME FROM HOENHEIM!" Edward screams.

"Cause you want to seriously hurt him…maybe even kill him" Winry says quietly.

"What?…No, Winry, there's been a mistake, I wasn't going to-"

"Yeah brother, I know he walked out on us and mom, but that doesn't mean you can beat him to a pulp for it!" Alphonse interrupts as he stands beside Winry.

"No really, I was trying to-"

"Your brother is right, you should be ashamed to even consider abusing your new powers like that for revenge Ed" Penako adds, cutting him off again.

"Guys, I wasn't-" Edward attempts again, before they all cut him off. After 30 seconds of interrupting rebuttals, Edward screamed with an unearthly volume, screeching, "WILL YOU ALL SHUT THE HELL UP!"

Suddenly, 3 hands sprung from the ground and held them tight, moving to the side to clear a path to me. I then realized that maybe I was in trouble.

"I wasn't going to hurt him!" Edward blurts, desperate to say the line they'd been keeping him from stating. Then he walked up to me, looking me straight in the eyes.

"I do want to give this man something though" he says with a stonewall face, a small frown etched into his face.

"Ok, if it will help ease your anger, then I won't resist son" I reply as I lower my head to await a big blow.

"No, I have something much more intense in-store for you Hoenheim" Edward says as he walks closer, his arms outstretched as he approaches., I quickly closed my eyes, anticipating a big attack that would probably sting a little. However, instead of being struck…I felt something warm holding…hugging me. As I opened my eyes, I saw it was Edward!

"An apology, for hating you all these years when I thought you'd just abandoned us like a rotten dad" Edward says softly.

Upon hearing this, I was taken aback, and stunned. My eldest son Edward, who despised me for leaving them as children, was apologizing!

"I understand why you left, I understand everything now, and things don't have to end the way they were going to, so I'm sorry for my anger at you…dad" Edward says as he looks me in the eyes, then hugs me again. Unable to speak coherently, I just hugged my eldest son back and smiled.

"You don't know how long I've wanted to hear you say that, thank you Edward" I say tearfully as I manage to speak once again.

Suddenly though, I remembered how he'd called me and the homunculus by our original names, how could he have learned that?

"Edward, hang on, how did you know I used to be a slave, let alone that I was turned into a living philosopher's stone, who told you these things…and how did you get so tall in just 3 days?" I ask with worry, hoping this wasn't some kind of trick by the homunculus.

"It's a looooooooong story dad, you're gonna need to come inside and stay a while" Edward says as he throws an arm around my shoulder.

"Well…ok, but I can't stay for long, I have to get back to the plan, you know about don't you?" I say with a hushed tone.

"Yeah, the plan may not even be necessary anymore, but I will try to keep this as short as possible, so come on in" he says as he drags me inside, the others quickly followed.

As we walked in, he directed me to the arm chair for me to sit down, I obliged and he went upstairs for some reason.

"Where is he going Alphonse?" I ask my armor suited son.

"Oh yeah, dad…there's a situation that we need help with, its kinda unprecedented" Alphonse says nervously as he twiddles his thumbs.

"What kind of situation, is it bad?" I pry, hoping it wasn't too serious, but knowing my children it was probably a matter of life and death.

"Very bad" a frail, familiar voice replies from the stairs. Wait…I knew that voice. Whipping my head back to the stairs, my eyes widened as I saw the impossible.

"Hi daddy" the thin ,emaciated body of my youngest son Alphonse says weakly. I could barely contain myself and jumped from the chair and embraced him with as gentle a hug as possible so I didn't break any bones.

"Oh Alphonse, you got your body back, this is wonderful!" I shout as I hug him tightly.

"No…not yet isn't" Alphonse's voice continues, but with that metallic reverberation that only came from…the armor!

"Alphonse, please tell me this is a joke" I beg, hoping my ears weren't deceiving me.

"No, its no joke dad, its very serious" both voices of my son state, causing me to look over and see that the animated suit of armor and flesh and bone body of my son were both talking and walking.

"Oh damn, what kind of shit are you in now boys?" I pant as I stumble back to the chair, the panic settling in.

"I'm not in any trouble, but Al is in a lot, should I start from the beginning dad?" Edward asks gently.

"Yes, (pant) please, I have to know everything; how did you survive the explosion Edward, how did you grow a matter of feet within a span of days, how can you do alchemy without even clapping your hands, and most importantly, why is Alphonse's body back on Earth yet his armor still retains his voice?" I state as I try to calm myself.

"Ok, it all started after the Fifth Laboratory came crashing down. I managed to snap out of my unconsciousness and engaged the homunculus known as Envy in single combat. Then we each tried to pull off Scar's Destruction Alchemy move, and the world exploded. I could feel my life slipping away, but I wasn't conscious, so I had no idea what was happening around me, that's when I woke up" Edward begins, his tone dark and grave.

_5 Hours Later: Mid-Day_

"And after telling Roy Mustang and his men about Father's plan, I realized that my earlier actions might indeed cause Father to retaliate against them, so I created a dome from a metal so powerful, and who's atomic structure only I know, that there is no way anyone can go hurt them" Edward concludes, having told his whole story while floating in a cross-legged meditation style position.

"You defied Truth and just stole your brother's body…that shouldn't even be possible" I reply, my voice barely a whisper as I attempted to process all this knowledge that my son had told me.

"Yeah, so this jewel, my master Psyagon gave it to me, he said it can perform real miracles due to the power he imbued with it, but I can't figure out how to make it work. I marveled at the beauty and magnificence of this multi-colored stone, its aesthetic appeal was unparalleled, and I had seen many wonderful gems, none came even close to the majestic, raw luster or glow this one had; it was as if…it shone with a life force all its own.

"Then I met Psyagon in the middle of the battle between Ed and Bradley, he helped me figure out how to calm Ed down and told me more about the jewel" Winry adds, as she stared at the stone too.

"Yeah, he told her, that the secret to restoring Al to his body lies within the necklace, she then told me, but I can't figure this damn thing out!" Edward screams as he tries to pop it open, then bites on it like a wild animal chewing at a bear trap.

"Let me have a look, I may be able to help at least offer some insight as to how and truly find answers" I say as I extend my hand. He quickly took the necklace off and put the jewel in my hand.

"Fascinating, I can feel absolutely no imperfections, why, its completely and utterly flawless, at least on the surface, I can't peer inside this object's structure because I do not know what it is made of" I say as I marvel at Psyagon's craftsmanship.

"I don't get it, I know its sparkly and all, but even so, isn't it still fundamentally a crystalline structure?" Winry comments.

"Well when I looked at it, it appeared that it was, but then I peered deeper, and well…it seems to be a blend of both matter and energy" Edward replies with a flair of awe and mysteriousness to his tone.

"What do you mean a blend of matter and energy, aren't they two separate things?" I remark, remembering how matter can release energy through chemical reactions, but saying that something was made of both, that was a new concept.

"Well I learned advanced science from Psyagon too, and matter isn't quite what we think it is. Yes it's the building blocks of the world and universe as we know it, and matter can store energy within its bonds, but the truth is more fantastic than matter merely being able to hold it, they're actually one and the same at the deepest levels" Edward explains as he holds the cube.

"What do you mean brother?" Armor Alphonse asks with wonder.

"Matter is merely energy in a compacted, solid form, they are inter-changeable, matter is energy and energy is matter, it all goes back to the concept of one is all and all is one, remember?" Edward replies.

"Oh, that would explain how matter can make explosions or spontaneously combust, its changing from solid to free energy" I say as I put the pieces together.

"Exactly, but in most reactions, only a tiny percentage of mass is converted into energy. The more efficient the conversion of mass to energy is, the more powerful of a blast that can be made from the material, that's why some explosives are more potent than others, the matter used in them reacts more efficiently. But enough about what we already know, we need to figure out this damn crystal, how to get my brother back in his body!" Edward yells as he points at it.

"That still doesn't explain your statement about it being made of both matter and energy, you acted as if it was both solid and energy at the same time" Winry points out.

"She has a point, what did you mean by that?" I inquire, my curiosity growing again.

"I meant it as I said it; somehow, this crystal, its not just made of crystalline atomic structure, somehow…its also made of some kind of solidified energy, a kind that's nothing like conventional matter, its baffling" Edward replies as he rubs his chin and stares at it.

"What do you mean, if matter is solidified energy, then how is this solid energy you speak of any different than a block of wood?" I press, my curiosity climbing by the second.

"Well, the best way I can compare it is this; imagine a pair of handcuffs, but instead of metal, they're made of photons" Edward starts as he creates a pair of handcuffs from thin air and puts them on my wrists.

"But brother, light isn't solid, its energy" Armor Alphonse argues.

"Yeah, I know that, under normal conditions, photons are just energy particles. But imagine a pair of photon cuffs, and they acted exactly like these, but stronger due to being made of pure energy" Edward counters as he flicks the chain between the two cuffs.

"Hard Light Constructs, Psyagon demonstrated that when he talked to me!" Winry says with realization.

"Yes, with the proper application, light can function almost exactly like matter, just about any energy with the right application and manipulation can exhibit matter like qualities, that's why this necklace is so confusing, being made of some kind of solid energy construct, I cannot determine its make up, not without more time and examination" Edward explains succinctly.

"Well do you know of a good laboratory I can hide at, so I can try to help you with this?" I reply with a hopeful tone.

"I know just the place, you can hide at Eastern Command, Mustang will help shelter you while I figure out the best way to deal with Father and his plans, take my hand and I can take you there, Alphonse, your body will probably be safest there, with the Adamantium dome and all, so can I take him there?" Ed asks with a polite tone.

"Can you keep my body company dad, and make sure he's well nourished?" Armor Alphonse pleads.

"Of course, I'd be happy to, here, your necklace" I say as I offer it back to my eldest son.

"No, I can't risk it being damaged in a fight, I don't know how durable it is, you keep that gem for the time being and study it so we can get Al back in his body" Edward says as he closes my hand around the crystal.

"Agreed, I'll hang onto it for a few days and see if I can't find out anything with Alkahestry son, I promise I will guard it with my life" I say solemnly.

"Thank you, Winry, Alphonse, Penako, you guys stay here, I'll be back soon, make sure you hold onto me dad" Edward says softly as he walks over to pick up Alphonse's body, then motioned for me to come over. Grabbing his shoulder, I smiled and waved good bye to Penako, as we suddenly began to vanish.

**Roy Mustang**

It'd barely been an hour since they left, and already we could feel the panic setting in.

"But Priiiiiiidddeeeeeeeee, I'm hunnnnnnnggggggyyyyyyy!" Gluttony whines outside my office door.

"Oh have a little spine, you can hold your appetite longer than an this can't you?" Envy groans in annoyance, reflecting how I felt about the fat homunculus's hunger complaints.

"Yes brother, be patient, I'm sure Edward will return soon with an answer to your dilemma, now be quiet" Pride says with his cold, firm voice.

"Ok" Gluttony sighs as he plops on his ass, creating a tiny tremor as he did.

"Colonel, where is Edward? I feel like a rat in a cage having to wait in here for his safety" Fuery asks desperately.

"Yeah, and we're gonna have to confront the military soon once they find out about the dome Edward made" Riza comments as a sudden whooshing and the appearance of three figures from thin air behind Riza cause me to gulp.

"What, is something wrong, are you ok Colonel?" Hawkeye asks worriedly.

"If they show their sorry asses here I'll make sure they all sink neck deep in concrete" Edwards booming voice says with a laugh.

"YAAAAAAAAHHH! Fullmetal, please don't do that!" she screeches as she jumps out of her shoes and into my arms.

"(Chuckling) You make a cute couple" the bearded man says with a smile.

I quickly realized I was holding Riza close, and we quickly separated, blushes coating our faces.

"Colonel Mustang, Alphonse Elric reporting sir" the thin emaciated boy replies with a strained voice as he is lowered from Edward's arm.

"Ok, relax Body Al, you have to take it easy for at least a month, you've been stuck in the realm of Truth for years, barely being given the level of nutrients your body needs to live, its gonna be a while before you can stand up for extended periods" Fullmetal replies as he brings up a chair.

"Wait, that's your brother?" Fuery asks incredulously.

"Just his body, remember, his soul is still trapped in the armor suit, that was the whole issue remember?" Edward says with an annoyed face.

"Oh right, so then why did you bring him here Fullmetal?" Fuery continues.

"So that I can look after my son's body while I examine Edward's crystal his master gave him, he can't figure it out with Alchemy, so he thought it might be a good idea to let me look with Alkahestry" the bearded man replies as he puts a hand on Alphonse's shoulder.

"Who are you sir?" I ask as I walk up to the bearded man with glasses.

"I'm the father of the Elric brothers, Van Hoenheim" he says with a smile.

At that moment, the doors were busted down and Gluttony barreled in blubbering, "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME FATHER, IT HURTS TO DIE!"

**Edward Elric**

I was about to remind folks that my code name was no longer Full Metal, but I decided what the hell, its easier to say in a pinch than "The Alchemic Saiyan", I really had to figure out a catchier code name to reflect my new status. Then Gluttony busted the door down sobbing uncontrollably, begging "Father" to let him live.

"I'm sorry, I think you have me mistaken for someone else" my dad says as he rubs the back of his head.

"Huh? Oh, you're not Father, you look like him though" Gluttony says as he puts a finger in his mouth.

"I told you to keep an eye on him Envy, I had to go home and make sure that Mrs. Bradley wasn't looking for me" Pride groans as he and Envy walk into the room.

"Hey, its not my fault that Breda is such a sloppy eater, just be glad that Gluttony didn't get a whiff of that, at least in my case all that happened was me slipping on some mustard that squirted out of his sandwich and I got into an argument with him, tubby would have tried to eat Breda and his lunch" Envy snaps.

"Ahhh, so you're Hoenheim, its nice to finally meet you" Pride says as he notices my dad and walks up to shake his hand.

"Oh, so you're Selim Bradley, but you're a homunculus aren't you?" Hoenheim replies with suspicion.

"Indeed, I' am Pride, the first one he made" the young prince says with a smile.

"Well I don't mind you 3 being around as long as you behave; besides, from what I've heard, you all changed sides to join with my son" Hoenheim replies.

"Yeah, after threatening to kill us" Envy says bitterly.

"HEY, It was for your own good and you know it! And if I recall correctly, I gave you a choice, and showed plenty of mercy, don't you ever forget that" I retort angrily, surprised at how easily Envy was forgetting his place.

"EEK! Sorry, force of habit, I'm trying to improve" Envy pleads as he bows respectfully.

"That's better, anyways, I'm gonna go back to Winry and my brother, spend the rest of the day with them. Then tomorrow we'll get together and discuss the best way to save Amestris and-"

"Episode 10" a hollow eerie voice moans as it interrupts my train of thought.

"YAH! What was that?" I scream with alarm, the whole room rumbling from my voice.

"Whoa, easy with the lungs brother, remember we're not all super aliens, our ears have limits" Body Al says as he rubs his ears, everyone but dad, Envy, Pride, and Gluttony did too.

"Sorry, its just I could have sworn I heard a voice, and it sounded like it said-"

"Episode 10" the voice repeats, its tone much clearer now.

"AAHHHH! THERE IT IS AGAIN!" I bellow, causing the room to rumble once more.

"FULL METAL, ENOUGH WITH THE SCREAMING, WE'RE INSIDE!" Mustang snaps angrily.

"I'm sorry, but I know I'm not hearing things now; there is a voice talking to me, but I can't tell where its coming from, or what its statement means" I reply as I lower my voice and try to figure out what it means.

"Its your sensei, remember the events of Episode 10 you dummy! That's all I can tell you right now" the voice of my master snaps with frustration. I quickly realized that Psyagon must have spoken to me through the gem, he did say it had great power after all.

Wait a minute, episode 10, could he have meant Episode 10, Separate Destinations from the anime based on our universe? Remembering how Psyagon had shown me the series in full during my training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, I quickly went back over the episodes in order from the beginning. The first one showed me and Al fighting Douglas the freezer alchemist, the second chronicled a flashback of me and Al's childhood and that fateful day, the third was about our trip to Liore and that fiasco with Cornello, the fourth told of our trip to Shou Tucker. As I kept going down the list, I reached 10 and I felt my blood run cold. That was the one where Maes Hughes learned of the Nation Wide Transmutation Circle, and Father and his goons decided that he knew too much, and had him killed!

However, since Envy and Pride, the most powerful Homunculi had all defected to our side, that meant that Envy couldn't kill Hughes now, but if the events were meant to play out, then Hughes could still be in danger of dying, which meant…oh shit. Either Father will send someone else to try and off Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, or worse, no, I couldn't think that yet, my Big Bang Attack went through the center of Central Command, Hughe's post in the west wing of the building. Still, the fact remains that it's been a day past the timeline that had been projected in my series, but though my death probably put a damper on Father's concentration, I doubt he forgot that Hughes had closed in on the truth. Which would mean…

"AAHH! Mustang, quick, when was the last time you had contact with Maes Hughes!" I shout, causing him to give me a funny look.

"Um, 3 days ago at your funeral, why?" Mustang replies with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait, didn't you blow up Central Command Ed?" Envy remarks.

"Just the center, thankfully Hughes is stationed in the west wing, but that's not the point, he's still in danger! I'll be back soon" I scream as I vanish with Instantaneous Movement.

An instant later, I was inside the corridor entrance that leads to the west wing of Central Command, but realized that since Bradley had seen me like this, I'd need to have a disguise.

"Luckily I learned a few tricks from Psyagon regarding the use of Alchemy to alter my physical traits" I say with a smirk. Taking a few minutes, I changed my hair color from golden blonde to jet black, and my facial structure to more closely resemble Hoenheim's. Then, I did a finishing touch by changing my jacket from its trademark red, to a dark blue.

"There, that ought be sufficient, I just hope I'm not too late" I yell as I break into a dash to find Hughes.


	15. Chapter 15 The Colonel's Close Call

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 15: The Colonel's Close Call**

**Maes Hughes**

The death of my friend Edward Elric had certainly put me behind schedule, now having finally returned from my days off mourning the loss of the eldest Elric, I gathered up my supplies and began to look at them again, trying to find a connection between all the uprisings and deaths around the country. As I read the latest paper, realized I had finally found one. "Sheska, Fokker, I'm going to the archive room, I'll be back soon" I say as I drop the newspaper and walk out the door to head down the hall.

**Sheska**

As the colonel left the room, Fokker sighed and sat down in the chair Hughes had been using. "Finally, a guaranteed break from him mentioning his damn wife and kid, that gets annoying hearing about it every 5 minutes" the captain says with irritation.

"Oh come on, I know it gets kinda old, but I think its sweet that he holds his family to such high esteem, it says a lot about his character" I reply in defense.

"Yeah, that he's obsessed with them" Fokker remarks sarcastically. I moaned in defeat, knowing there was no way I could change his mind.

"(SLAM) Where is Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, this is a matter of life and death!" a tall man shouts as he practically breaks the door off its hinges.

"Whoa! Calm down sir, no need to scream, why the big rush?" Fokker says as he jumps up to try and soothe the man's anger. I realized something, his face seemed different, but the hair and jacket had the same style as…

"Edward Elric, is that you?" I ask as I adjust my glasses to make sure that my eyes weren't playing tricks.

"GIIIHHH! Pipe it Sheska! I'm in disguise" the man whispers fiercely as he closes the space between us without even moving and clamps my mouth shut.

"Oh, well its very good, I doubt I'd have recognized you if not for my eidetic memory" I state, proud of how well Ed had covered himself up, he'd even somehow found a way to appear taller convincingly.

"Enough prattle, where is Hughes!" he snaps angrily.

"He went to the archive room just moments ago, he seemed to be onto something" Fokker says casually.

"DAMN IT! I hope I'm not too late" Edward screams. Suddenly, he just vanished into thin air.

"What the hell, how did he do that?" Fokker exclaims.

"And why does he seem so distressed?" I say out loud. I wondered if it had something to do with what the colonel was researching.

**Maes Hughes**

"Liore, these endless uprisings, the Philosopher's Stone, human sacrifices, and the outright genocide of the Ishvalan people" I list aloud to myself as I draw circles on my map of Amestris. As I connected the marked areas, my eyes widened at the sight. There, plain as day, the entire country was covered by an alchemic equation of immense proportion, a nationwide human transmutation circle!

"Then this means…how could this even happen, and who could have orchestrated something as terrible as this? I've gotta tell the Führer right away!" I yell as I jump up and drop the map.

Suddenly the doors closed shut loudly, snapping my attention away from the map, where an admittedly lascivious woman stood. Tall, with long raven hair and a dress with large cleavage, she blocked the door.

"Well hello Lieutenant Colonel, its nice to meet you. Well actually, hello really isn't the word I'm looking for" she replies coolly.

"Cool tattoo you got there" I reply with a smirk as I notice the Ouroboros marking right above her breasts, immediately knowing that she was in league with the same people responsible for the death of Edward Elric.

"Those are your last words, wouldn't you rather scream?" she asks sarcastically as she lifts her right hand, and the fingers suddenly turn into razor sharp spears with the trademark CHINK sound. I quickly grabbed one of my throwing knives and tossed it right at her forehead, but in that same instant, her spear fingers elongated and one pierced me through my shoulder, the others barely missing other areas of my body as my own turned during the knife throw.

Mustering as much strength as possible, I tried to walk out of the room, but just after opening the door, I collapsed onto my injured shoulder and winced with pain. I tried to use my other arm with my legs to try and get on my feet, but then through the door, 5 spear points struck me, one through each limb, and the last one through the same area of my chest that her tattoo was on.

"Its really a pity, the original plan was that I'd let Envy finish you off since he likes to kill so much, but sadly he's no longer available, so I guess its up to me to do the job" the woman says with a wicked smile as she reduces the rest of the door to splinters and casually saunters out, the spears of her left hand still pinning me to the floor. As I managed to open my eyes, I saw her aim her right hand of spear fingers at me, and within moments, they punched through various parts of my upper body, one of them barely missing my heart, while another punctured one of my lungs, yet another striking my liver, the fourth striking my stomach, and the thumb hitting my pancreas; I instantly coughed up blood as the tips damaged my vital organs.

"The secret dies with you Hughes" she laughs icily as I feel myself slipping into a blackout from the pain.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" a man screams with rage.

**Edward Elric**

As I came upon the entrance to the archive room after spending several minutes searching everything but the ruins of the center wing I'd destroyed earlier today, I found Hughes already on the ground.

"You…you…YOUUUUUUU!" I growl as I tremble with rage, barely able to speak coherently, I couldn't believe it, even with the altered flow of events from the anime I saw, I was still too late to save him.

"Excuse me, but who are you, can't you see I'm too busy to kill you too? Now shoo before change my mind" Lust replies nonchalantly.

"(Grins) You don't recognize me like this, do you Lust?" I say with a wicked smile. Her eyes immediately widened as she recognized my voice.

"Can't blame you, this disguise is almost fool proof to most beings" I reply with a smirk. Immediately I activated the alchemic reset formula's I'd made and my body returned to its original Saiyan form, causing her to gasp.

"Edward, How did you get here so quickly! Last I saw you were at Eastern Command with Mustang and the traitors!" Lust whimpers as she retracts her spears and backs up to the wall.

"Oh is it that hard to guess? I can move faster than light now, its what my master's training and this new body have yielded, and you're not gonna live past the next 5 minutes you bitch" I say with a blood-thirsty smile.

"We'll see about that!" She screams as she extends her spears right toward my chest, an evil smirk growing on her face as they reached ever closer, certain to make contact and pierce through me.

If she only knew how futile it would be.

The instant they struck, they reacted as if hitting an invisible barrier, which wasn't too far from the truth.

"No…that's not possible…my ultimate spears" she whispers with shock as her face contorts with terror.

"You fool, did you honestly think I would let your spears hit me if I didn't know the attack would fail and make your face go like that?" I laugh as I look at her horror stricken face.

"But, they're ultimate spears, they can pierce any substance, I tested them, only Greed's ultimate shield can withstand it!" Lust exclaims, trying to deny what she'd seen.

"(Scoffs) Greed's Ultimate Shield is just layers of diamond grade carbon atoms, I know over half a dozen substances stronger than that" I remark casually, causing her to gasp again.

"But that's beside the point, you didn't even hit matter, what stopped your spears was my life force, I concentrated a super dense layer of pure Ki energy just millimeters above my skin, every inch of it, its strong enough to survive a direct hit from a whole train…no, a train yard full of dynamite like it was a pea shot from a straw, easily" I explain with glee, enjoying the growing shock on her face.

"In short, with the resources at your disposal, I' am completely and utterly invulnerable" I finish, causing her to have a look of despair. She quickly snapped out of it though, and began to charge me with her claws.

"The hell you are! I know you have a weak spot somewhere" she snarls as she lunges at me. I snickered at her pathetic attempt and easily side-stepped it like a pebble thrown by a kid.

"Maybe you're not getting the picture wench, I'm no longer a weak and vulnerable human, I' am a member of a proud alien race known as the Saiyans, let me spell out what that means for you" I chuckle as I grab her arms right down at the shoulder sockets. She turned her head around and looked at me with shock as she saw the way I held her so easily.

"I'm STRONGER!" I grunt as I rip her arms off effortlessly, causing her to scream in agony. Letting go, I casually strolled up to the end of the hallway we were in, then back again in moments, her jaw dropping at this sight.

"I'm FASTER!" I shout angrily. An instant later, I moved faster than the blink of an eye and tore her legs off at the sockets as well, causing her to scream even louder, as her arms hadn't even had time to start healing as I stood over her currently limbless form.

Then before she could even speak, I restructured my left hand into thousands of needle sized pins and extended them through every inch of her body in the same manner as her ultimate spears shot out, resulting in making her appearance exactly akin to a human pincushion. The wounds were so extensive, blood was leaking everywhere, coating the floor like a new paint job.

"I'm better" I say calmly as I look her in the eyes with a smile, that same blood lust from earlier today coming over me, only this time I wanted to feel it, to enjoy making her suffer for all the people she'd killed, and all she had planned to kill in the future.

"Now your story ends here Lust; no more grand schemes, no fight to the finish with my brother or friends, no more" I state coldly as I raise my right hand, a glowing blue orb the size of a marble forming at my finger tip.

"(Cough) N-Not that again" she moans as she spits up more blood, my pins keeping her from healing.

"That's right, concentrated Ki, enough raw energy to pop Amestris right off the face of the earth like a fucking pimple!" I say with mad glee, causing her to scream with terror, barely though due to the level of her injuries.

"You're…you're insane, you'd kill everyone, including your brother and girlfriend, not even you are that cold!" she shouts weakly.

"Who said I'd just toss it at you dumbass?" I retort with a grin as I retract my pins and reform my left hand back to normal, allowing her to regenerate completely. Then, forming another more hollow yellow sphere in it, I lazily threw it at Lust, causing her to cringe and shield her face with her newly reformed arms. However, the blast she'd anticipated never came, and as she lowered her arms and opened her eyes, they nearly shot out of her head in awe.

**Lust**

I had expected the yellow orb to hurt beyond anything I'd ever felt, but instead of feeling concussive force, it was as if a balloon had hit me. Opening my eyes, I found myself surrounded by a film of yellow light the same color as the sphere Edward had launched moments ago, a bubble of energy!

"I'd be the biggest damn idiot in the universe if I just let this loose the way bullets are" he laughs dryly as he holds the blue orb above his right index finger. Casually walking up to me, he looked me right in the eyes, with a wild, feral stare, with a blood lust unlike anything I'd seen before.

"That's what this barrier is for, it allows matter and energy inside, but only certain types of energy can pass back out, such as low power light, all matter and all but the strongest energies rebound against its interior" he says with a smile, then holds the orb right in front of me, its icy blue glare penetrating right into me.

"So what do you think would happen to you…if I were to shove this into the barrier and let it detonate?" he says cruelly as he slowly inches the finger tip closer. Instinctively, I backed away, hitting the opposing end of the bubble.

"Nonsense, I can break out, this thing has to have a weak point!" I shout desperately as I extend my spears and shoot them toward the inside surface across from me. But just like when they hit his stomach earlier, they just rebounded off, like against Greed's shield.

"HA HA HA! What, did you really go deaf after my last attack or are you just plain stupid? Its made of Ki bitch, you can't break through it" he boasts proudly, inching the tiny glowing orb ever closer.

"You're never gonna get to see Father's "Promised Day", cause in a minute or so, I'm gonna shove this little ball of Ki into the barrier and let it loose, do you know what that will be like?" he asks sarcastically, giving me the feeling he was about to explain whether I asked or not, so I decided to humor him, as I just realized that though he planned to try and kill me, so far none of his attacks had been able to do so.

"Ok then Fullmetal, do it, just remember, the moment you think I'm dead, I'll shoot my spears straight through your heart once your guard is down, so go ahead, try it" I reply as I lean back and wait for him to finish up.

"You honestly think that you'll be able to walk away from this, don't you?" Edward says with shock.

"I've regenerated from much worse kid" I say as I blow a strand of hair out of my face, still reclining against the bubble wall.

"(Chuckle) That would imply that I leave something for you to regenerate from Ms. Conceited" he states coldly. This snapped me back to full awareness and I looked at his eyes, noting the cold stare.

"Wait, what do you mean?" I ask, my fear returning as a sinking feeling crept under my skin.

"Quite simply this; the Ki orb on my fingertip has more than 4 times 10 to the 22nd power joules of energy, to put that in perspective, more than 9 and a half trillion tons of trinitrotoluene; HA. that's like all the energy from a huge earthquake or a large asteroid impact put together!" Edward laugh, causing me to shiver as I start seeing a mental picture of what an explosion of that magnitude would be like.

"But that barrier is less than 10 cubic feet, so at that level of concentration, you will vaporize instantly. Regenerate? There won't even be any flesh or Philosopher's Stone that survives to reconstitute from! The instant I let this blast loose inside the sphere, there will be nothing, absolutely nothing left but free floating atoms of your former body and stone. So…any last words, Homunculus?" Edward continues, giving me a mad grin, signaling that he would greatly enjoy seeing me die for my crimes he somehow seemed to know of. As I stared at this orb that was certain to completely obliterate me, I felt my eyes filling up with something, but before I could think more on the matter, a voice said, "D-Don't"

"Huh, did you hear that?" Edward asks, I promptly nodded to affirm his question.

"P-Please, don't do it Ed" the quiet voice wheezes, causing us all to snap our eyes to the still form of Maes Hughes. But it was no longer still, his chest was rising and falling, HE WAS ALIVE!

**Edward Elric**

"Hu-Hughes, is this for real, are you?-"

"(Cough) Yeah, just barely, please don't do it Edwar (Gasps and coughs up more blood)" Hughes groans as the back of his head slams onto the ground again.

"HOLD ON HUGHES, I CAN STILL SAVE YOU!" I bellow as I zip over to my friend instantly, extinguishing my Ki orb immediately and reabsorbing the energy back into my system. I didn't know how long he could last with his Ki this low, it was barely detectable, so I couldn't risk trying to take my time transmuting senzu beans. The only thing that might be fast enough is by using the same technique of Ki healing that Dende knew, boy it's a good thing that Psyagon thought to teach me that, now would be the perfect time for my first field application of it!

"Hold still Hughes, I'm gonna save you, you won't die in this universe" I say as I open up my palms and point them at the Lieutenant Colonel's body. Summoning forth the life giving power of Ki, I began to pour it out into Hughes, the trade mark pulsing hum accompanying my use of the technique. As the seconds past, I felt his breathing becoming less and less labored. Within 10 seconds, I felt his energy surging back toward normal levels, and it was then that I knew I had succeeded.

I had prevented the murder of Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes single-handedly, he would live to see his family again, Elicia wouldn't have to grow up without a father! I could barely contain my joy, knowing that thanks to Psyagon's kindness, I would be able to change history for the better.

"Edward, what are you-"

"Don't talk, its almost over" I reply as I cut off the still weak Colonel. I just needed another minute uninterrupted and Hughes would be 100 percent-

"HALT MONSTER!" an all too familiar voice bellows boisterously.

Oh fuck, not him, anyone but him!

"You will fall before the might and glory of my muscles monster! Alex, the Strong Arm Alchemist!" Major Armstrong shouts as he removes his shirt and shows off for a moment.

"Damn it, why did he have to show up now?" I moan as he tackles me to the ground.


	16. Chapter 16 The Last, Last Chance

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 16: The Last, Last Chance!**

**Maes Hughes**

I couldn't explain it, but somehow Edward had saved me, but that should be impossible, he died 3 days ago, how could he be here? Maybe I was just reacting instinctively to a dying dream.

"Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, thank goodness you're alright, that monster didn't rough you up too badly did he?" the voice of Maria Ross yells as she and Denny Brosh rushed to my side. I knew I wasn't dreaming now, Denny always complained about how annoying my constant praise of my family was, I'd never dream of him.

"Sir, you're wounded, we need to get you out of here, its too dangerous to stay here with the monster" Denny says as he lifts me up and puts an arm around my pits to support me up.

"Monster, what are you talking about, wasn't that-"

"Sir, it's the same guy who vaporized half of central just hours ago, all the most senior military staff except for Bradley were killed in a single blast, earlier this morning, along with hundreds of employees" Denny continues, cutting me off and silencing me with his sentence.

"You mean the giant blonde killer?" I reply with shock, surprised at why someone so proficient at destruction would return if they'd already successfully done the job.

"Yeah, the one who almost killed Bradley, the few soldiers who lived to see the event up close said the dude was beating his excellency's ass like a drum, he didn't stand a chance, they ran off before they could figure out where he went though, though some folks say they saw a series of pillars appearing out of the ground leading east, but any traces he'd left vanished quickly, he somehow covered his tracks" Denny says as he slowly drags me away from the battle scene.

"Funny, that monster looked familiar, and for a second, I could have sworn he sounded exactly like-"

"ARMSTRONG, YOU STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME, I'M BUSY TRYING TO SAVE AND AVENGE LIEUTENANT COLONEL HUGHES ASSHOLE!" the shrill and unmistakable roar of Edward Elric screams.

"Wait, it is him, he's somehow still alive, but how did he become such a powerful monster?" I whisper under my breath to myself as we near the exit. I then realized I needed to see this for myself.

"Denny, I need you to take me back to the monster" I say with urgency.

"Sorry sir, Major Armstrong ordered me to get you to safety" Denny says dutifully.

"Well I'm a Lieutenant Colonel, so I outrank Armstrong, and I'm giving you a direct order to disregard his order, and get my ass back to the battlefield NOW!" I snap, causing him to flip around like a mirror trick and head right back inside.

"Well in that case how can I possibly refuse?" he replies nervously.

**Alex Louis Armstrong**

Immediately after Denny had evacuated Hughes from the area, the monster had thrown me off him like a cheap sack of flour, effortlessly it seemed, his strength was indeed every bit as inhuman as the witnesses had claimed.

"I must admit, your strength is extremely commendable beast, but I'm afraid that you will get no further praise from me murderer" I shout as I stomp on the ground, throwing up some pieces of tile, which I promptly punched, transmuting them into large conical spear projectiles that rush toward the thing's chest with blazing speed.

However, instead of blood or recoil coming from the impacts, my shots cracked apart into rubble the instant they hit his skin, like they'd struck a solid steel sheet!

"Is that all Armstrong? That was pathetic, and they call you the Strong Arm Alchemist, (Scoff) the title isn't worthy when compared to my strength" the beast replies haughtily.

"Impressive, well then, try this on for size!" I shout as I crouch and slam both my fists to the ground, causing a series of spikes to begin sprouting from the tiles, heading straight toward the monster.

What happened next nearly made my jaw drop, as the column neared the fiend and the large finisher spike sprouted out to impale his chest, it too cracked and burst into rubble, like a lump of clay!

"Unbelievable…that move has never failed to kill a target when it hit successfully, even solid steel can't withstand the piercing force of a giant alchemic spike" I drone as I rub my eyes to make sure I didn't just imagine what I'd seen.

"Believe it Armstrong, I'm raw power, so please just stand aside, I don't want to hurt you" he says as he casually walks over to me.

"No, I have to save that young woman and make sure you get justice for the attempted murder of Lieutanent Colonel Maes Hughes!" I shout as I resume my battle stance, ready to fight again.

"Are you serious, DON'T YOU RECOGNIZE ME!" the man screams angrily. I took a moment to look, he had long golden hair and eyes, but he was too tall, and I had been to Edward's funeral, so there was no way it was him.

"I don't know who you are, or what exactly you've done to that girl, but I will free her and ensure that Hughes gets his vengeance for the attempt on his life!" I roar as I slam my fists down again, this time causing two giant fists to sprout from the walls, ready to attack from a sideways angle, where I hoped a weak point was present.

**Edward Elric**

This was getting tedious, not only was Hughes still not completely healed, but Mustang and his men probably still needed me, and Winry and Al were both waiting for me back home. It was high time to wrap this up before she has a reason to yell at me.

As the stone fists came at me, my reflexes activated, and the world suddenly began to crawl to a stop around me, everything that wasn't attached to my person seemed to be in slow-motion, the movement of the large alchemic formations headed toward me barely even visible they were so sluggish. Smirking, I jumped back, did a mid-air twist, and smashed the fists into powder, all in a single backflip. From Armstrong's human perception, these series of actions probably seemed to have happened almost instantaneously due to the speed at which I executed them. His face immediately freezing with pure, indescribable awe after I landed back on my feet confirmed my theory.

"I-Its simply not possible; that speed…the power, how can you possibly be so skilled?" Armstrong asks breathlessly.

"Maybe I'll visit you in the hospital and tell you then, cause that's where you're headed if you don't stand down Major" I say with a dangerously low tone. I saw he was shaking, obviously afraid, but knowing the Major, he was sure to stick to the fight no matter what.

"No, I will not surrender no matter how powerful you are, I' am an Armstrong, we stand tall and proud, and we never give up!" he shouts as he stands in that strange glittery pose he always showed off with.

"(Groan) Very well then, I'll make sure the medical wing has a bed ready for you Major" I sigh as I fall into the at ease position, knowing I'd have to beat Armstrong into submission or unconsciousness to end the fight so I could deal with Lust and finish healing Hughes. Luckily, with my power it would only take one blow, I'd just need to reel my power level way back for a moment when I strike him.

As I let my arms hang to my sides, I slowly began to swing my left foot forward, Armstrong gasped and put his arms up in preparation to defend himself as soon as he realized my plan. Smiling evilly, I slowly lowered my foot onto the ground, letting it take its time to make contact with the tiling.

"What are you?…-"

Armstrong never got to finish his sentence, for the moment my right foot began to lift off the ground, I instantly began to move at super speeds, my technique akin to the flash-step move I'd heard Psyagon mention during training that our powers allowed us to easily duplicate and exceed. Less than a millisecond after I'd lifted my right foot and began moving, I stopped, hovering just inches above the ground, and looking the mighty Strong Arm Alchemist right in his eyes, which glistened with fear and awe.

"The fighting stops now Major" I remark as I smile, raising my right hand up curling up all my digits except the index finger, then pointed it at his face. Slowly descending back to the ground, I also re-positioned my finger from his forehead, down to his chest. As he looked at me silently in shock and realization, I poked him lightly in the sternum.

The result was instant.

The moment my finger touched him, I discharged a level of concussive force equal to twice that of a runaway ice cream truck, and the good Major went shooting down the corridor like a cannonball, and straight through the opposing wall with a mighty crash!

"Sorry I had to do that Major, but I got more important things to do than have a scrap with you" I shout down the hall, promptly turning back to face the terrified Lust and walking over to her cage orb.

"(Snarl) Ok, lets end this!" I growl as I recreate the concentrated blue Ki orb I'd been planning to use earlier to atomize the evil bitch.

"(Gun cocks) Drop the light, now" Maria says angrily, her pistol barrel shoved right against the back of my head.

**Maria Ross**

As I held the gun to the man's head, I pushed it against his skin forcefully, to make sure he got the point. "I said drop that ball of light now!" I yell angrily. Raising his hands up, he smirked as he kept facing the orb with the woman inside.

"You sure you want me to do that Lieutenant Ross? If I drop this, the whole country of Amestris will be wiped off the map, and I'll be the only thing standing amidst the ashes, so do you really want me to drop it?" he asks sarcastically. I thought he might be bluffing, but considering how easily he'd taken out the Major, a part of me didn't want to risk that.

"Ok, then just make it go away or whatever, you're still under arrest for mass murder of military officials!" I shout as I push the gun to his head harder.

"Oh please, I just took down the Strong Arm Alchemist without breaking a sweat, without even any effort; none of his alchemy based moves could even scratch me, and yet you think a puny pistol will stop me?" he argues with disbelief at my faith in the firearm I carried.

"This happens to be a standard Military Grade .45 Caliber Combat Pistol, its muzzle velocity well exceeds the speed of sound, and I doubt even you are that fast. Plus, coupled with the fact that a bullet's force is concentrated on a much smaller area, and that its right at the base of your skull, I think I'll get to see what your head looks like on the inside if I pull the trigger smartass" I reply heatedly. I expected him to cooperate with this new information, but instead of admitting defeat, he began to chuckle. Within moments, the chuckling turned to full blown guffaw fit.

"HA HA HA HA HA! Holy shit, are you fucking serious?" he wheezes with laughter, causing me to blush with embarrassment; was he really that confident in his power as to think so little of the gun pointed at his head?

"(Sighs and turns around, wiping a tear from his eye) Oh Maria, I don't think you realize just exactly what you're up against" he says as he grabs my gun from my hand before I can blink. As he pointed it at me, I stared in horror; to think that it had come to this, I would have never imagined that I would be killed by my own firearm in cold blood. Deciding to face my death with dignity, I lowered my head and awaited the killing blow.

"Heh, fooled you didn't I?" the man's voice says with a chuckle, instantly making my gaze go right back up to his face.

"Silly, I'm not out to take anymore innocent lives than those cost during the mistake I made this morning when I lost control, what I' am going to do is make a point" he continues, as he turns and aims the gun right at his face. Now somehow, I had a gut feeling that this wasn't right, why was he about to shoot himself unless…

"No wait, DON'T!" I plead as I try to reach back for the gun, but fail to stop it in time. As he pulled the trigger, the signature crack rang through the hallways, and I squeezed my eyes shut to avoid getting blood in them from the man's suicide shot.

But as I waited for the sensation of warm liquid splashing on me, I failed to feel any. After a few more moments, I reached up to feel my face, and realized there was no blood. I quickly opened my eyes to check my skin just to be sure. There wasn't even a drop.

"You might wanna take a good look Maria, this is part of the point I was saying I'm trying to make" the man says with a flat, serious tone.

Wait…he was still talking, and without any pain or strain, which meant something had happened that kept the gun from functioning properly. As I redirected my gaze up to his face again, I felt my stomach drop.

There, squished up against his forehead like a tiny metal pancake, was the bullet he had fired, he wasn't even scratched a little from the impact of the projectile! Something like that shouldn't even be possible, most life forms are carbon based, thus not that durable. I was still unsure if my eyes were tricking me or not, so I rubbed them to see if the image might go away. To my horror, the same visage I'd previously seen still stood before me.

"You don't seem convinced, maybe you wanna go ahead and give it a try?" he says cheerfully as he hands my gun back.

"W-What?" I state with shock, my whole body shaking.

"Come on, you don't have to be a good shot to pull this off, just feel free to fire off at any part of me, to prove to yourself that I'm bulletproof" he goads, as if eager to see my reaction. However, that wasn't something I could just get on board with, this creature no longer seemed so evil, and yet now it was asking me to shoot at him more?

"But…but…"

"No buts Lieutenant, I'm ordering you to shoot at me, or I'll just take the gun and do it myself, now fire damn it, so you will stop questioning your eyes!" he snaps.

Pausing for several moments, I couldn't decide whether to scream at him for making me make such a tough decision, or beg him to let me not have to carry this out.

"Hmmm, perhaps to make things easier, I just properly motivate you, shoot me if you wanna live" the man says as his right arm crackles with alchemic energy, reaching toward my face with it.

"AAAHHHHHHHHH!" I scream as I begin to pour round after round into the creature before it can kill me. Once my gun began to click, the weight of what I'd done sank in.

"I-I'm sorry, I was reacting defensively" I reply worriedly, thinking that a whole magazine of shots may have done what one couldn't.

"I was counting on it Lieutenant, take a look at your handiwork" the man says with a cheerful tone. I promptly looked up at him again, and my eyes almost burst from my sockets.

Across his upper body, in various points, were the remaining 11 bullets, all squished flat as coins against his skin, just like the one in his head!

"Now do you see why I wasn't afraid?" he says with a smirk, as the deformed pieces fall off his skin and clatter on the ground.

"No way…" I babble as I watch the scene before me unfold.

"Now please stay out of my way, I have a Homunculus to kill" he says as he turns around, reforming the little orb of Ki on his right index finger.

**Edward Elric**

Facing Lust once again with the Ki orb, I smiled, knowing that now I could finish the job uninterrupted at last. "The time has come Lust, your end is nigh" I state, causing her to gasp and close her eyes.

"You'll make lovely fireworks!" I scream as I prepare to throw the orb into the containment barrier.

"EDWARD STOP!" Hughes screams weakly. As I heard his voice, I turned around and stared. There, just fresh from around the bend of the hall, was Lieutenant Denny Brosh, holding Maes Hughes, who's mouth had begun to drip blood again from the incompletely healed wounds reopening again, but he was still smiling.

"Hughes! Thank goodness you came back, now I can finish healing you" I shout with relief as I begin to rush toward him.

"Back off!" Maria shouts as she stands in front of Hughes, pointing her gun at me as she loaded a new magazine into it.

"(Snarl) Outta my way Lieutenant, you know I can just push you aside like a little twerp, the gun changes nothing" I reply angrily, irritated that people kept preventing me from healing my dear friend.

"We'd rather die than let you hurt him" Denny says defensively, causing my eyes to widen as I realized why they kept interfering; they thought that my healing technique earlier was a killing method!

"There has been a mistake, my intentions were never to harm Maes Hughes, I saved him from certain death, and then you idiots hauled him away before I could finish the job!" I say angrily, hoping it would change their opinion of me.

"Yeah right, you expect us to take the word of a monster who killed over 300 people in less than an hour?" Maria remarks sarcastically, her anger showing.

"Why you dumbass morons, I OUGHTA!-"

"That's enough!" Hughes yells, cutting me off, causing us all to pause and stare at him.

"Please, finish healing me, I trust you" Hughes says with a smile.

"You got it buddy" I say as I begin to take a step forward and finally finish saving his life.

"HOLD ON! Buddy, you're friends with this fiend!" Maria screeches with rage.

"You are too Lieutenant Ross, you already met him a ways back" Hughes says calmly.

"(Gasp) I' am? But I've never met this man before in my life, how could I be friends with someone I've never seen before" she argues with confusion. Hughes and I both smiled at this.

"That's just it, you do know him; that man, is really Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist" Hughes laughs.

"SAY WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTT!" Denny and Maria both shriek dramatically, causing me to almost bust out laughing as it reminded me of many funny scenes from our anime where folks freaked out with the silly chibi art style.

"B-But that's impossible, Edward Elric was confirmed dead from the explosion at the Fifth Lab, plus he is less than 5 feet tall, this man is taller than us, how can it possibly be Edward Elric?" Maria retorts heatedly.

"Believe it or not, that big explosion was not from the collapse of the Fifth Laboratory, I had another accident like 3 years ago, and if my word isn't enough to prove its me, then have a look, isn't it said that this was destroyed in the blast too?" I say with a sly smile as I hold out my silver watch, causing Maria and Denny to gasp.

"I was right, it is you Edward; I don't know how, but its you, you're alive. I bet you never even died, heh heh (gags and coughs up more blood)" he replies weakly, as his health takes another dip.

"Ahh, hold on Hughes, you're not dying today!" I shout as I push Maria and Denny out of the way like dolls and lay the Colonel down gently. As soon as he was positioned comfortably, I opened up my palms and began to bathe him with the healing Ki once more. After just a few seconds, all his wounds were completely gone, all the while Maria and Denny staring with awe.

"(Sighs contentedly) Edward, I can't thank you enough, you literally saved me from death's door" Hughes says as he gets up and offers me a handshake. I promptly shook it then gave him a quick hug.

"I did it not just for you, but also for Elicia, she would have had to grow up without her father, without a good father, and that would not have been fair" I say as smile. Now, that left just one more thing to do.

"Alright then, now stand back, and avert your eyes, it might be too bright for humans to watch up close" I say as I reform the Ki orb for the umpteenth time and walk toward Lust's prison.

**Maes Hughes**

"Ok, now, its time to die, no more distractions, Hughes is safe, and Armstrong is unconscious, nothing to get in the way anymore" Edward says as he holds the orb right up to the surface of the glowing sphere that the "Lust" girl was trapped in. I was about to avert my eyes so I didn't get retinal damage as he theorized might happen, but then I saw it.

The woman, her eyes…no, I had to stop Edward, I knew I did, I could see her face, and Homunculus or not that had tried to kill me, what she was doing that my friend wasn't picking up on proved she wasn't completely lost, I had to convince him to give her a chance, but how!

Deciding to risk it, I screamed, "EDWARD STOOOOOPPP!" This almost proved to be disastrous, as Ed nearly fell flat on his face.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR! DO YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF I'D DROPPED THIS?" Edward bellows angrily as he holds the orb right in my face.

"Please keep that away from me, you already told us how powerful it is" I whimper.

"Sorry, its just, what gives? I'm trying to avenge your attempted death" Edward argues as he stands there with the orb.

"Have you taken a good look at yourself?" Maria remarks, causing Ed's face to get angry.

"Edward, what she means is-"

"Look into my little mirror, I keep it for make-up emergencies should I ever have one, like pimples or stuff, now take a good look" Maria cuts, handing him her little vanity mirror. Taking it, Ed gasped, then used his powers to somehow make the mirror into a full body length dresser kind!

"I-Is that me?" he asks incredulous.

"Yeah, now Hughes was pointing something else out, what was your point?" Maria asks me, causing my hair to stand up, as I was worried Ed might not have fully started to hear us, and was mad at being interrupted yet again.

"Yeah, care to point it out, I'm kinda worried, Maria made a good point, my face looked…well, kinda evil when I stared in the mirror, what do you have to add to my argument Hughes?" he asks gently, causing me to relax.

"Look at Lust, tell me what you see" I request, and he did for a moment.

"I see an inhuman monster, and she deserves to die!" he snaps almost instantly.

"NO! Look at her face, closely" I plead, and he sighs as he walks back to do so. I desperately hoped he'd be able to see past his own anger.

**Edward Elric**

As I looked at Lust, I still didn't see anything interesting, until I heard a strange sound, and realized it was sobbing. "Hey guys, is that Armstrong?" I remark, wondering if maybe he was awake now.

"Edward, look at Lust" Hughes says sternly. I groaned and did so, and my eyes widened.

There, plain as day, was the manipulative, heartless bitch Lust, crying audibly, her eyes leaking profusely!

"What…how…Hughes, is she?-" I start, unable to continue I was so shocked.

"Yes, she is crying, do you see what I meant now?" he says solemnly.

"But…that's Lust, the lascivious, the manipulative and heartless, she's not supposed to cry, to be honest none of the homunculi but Envy were supposed to wish to be human, Pride and Gluttony were a surprise, could I be wrong about them all?" I remark to myself, causing Hughes and the others to look at me strangely, I could fear their stares boring into the back of my head. I took another good luck at Lust, and realized I couldn't just incinerate her without hearing her out, her pleads, maybe Hughes was right, I might be acting too hastily, I should giver a last, last chance. Extinguishing the orb, I saw Lust gasp, as I reached touched the sphere with my finger and it dissolved, depositing her roughly on the floor.

"Alright, start talking, why are you crying? You're a homunculus damn it, you're all supposed to be stonewall cold or something, why is it I've seen evidence otherwise for all of you so far?" I say harshly as I look down at her, still not ready to show weakness to her.

**Lust**

Scrambling to my feet, my eyes were still leaking tears, as the angry superhuman Edward stared at me, his eyes boring into my very essence, I knew I had to come clean or he'd just kill me for attempting to murder Hughes. Sighing deeply, I turned my back to him and began by saying, "Because Father promised to give me what I desire most if helped him with the grand plan, what I've lusted after most since my birth"

Edward seemed to become curious as the words came out of my mouth, and he turned me around and came closer to look me right in the face.

"And what is it you desire most homunculus, what do you lust after above all others Lust?" he inquires with an edge to his tone, indicating he was ready to kill me if my answer didn't satisfy him.

"To be human" I state plainly, as my tears kept falling, knowing that now I'd never get my deepest ambition ever fulfilled, Edward was going to destroy Father and ruin everything, and worse, he will probably kill me, completely ensuring that any chance, even the slimmest one, would be forever gone.

"But I offered that to Envy and the others, to make them human one day, if you really wanted that so badly, why didn't you join me?" he asks as his face registers shock, apparently having been completely taken off guard.

"You mean she isn't human?" the shorter blonde man standing with the woman remarks with confusion.

"Quiet Denny, I'm interrogating here; anyways, you were saying Lust?" Edward snaps to the man, his voice quieting as he returns his attention back to me.

"I didn't believe you could grant me my desire, I still don't think you can grant it, that's why I've kept being obedient to Father, cause he already made me that promise long ago" I reply as I remember that day all those centuries ago.

"What did he promise you? I need to know exactly what he said" Edward presses as he grabs my shoulders, causing me to look away.

"Lust, tell me, and maybe I can understand things better so I can explain my offer, I assure you that my requirements regarding deals to get what you want are much more appealing than whatever he has said you have to do for him, and I'm skeptical that he's even promised you what you really want, now recount every detail of this deal you speak of now!" Edward explains forcefully, shaking me slightly. I knew I had no choice, I had to tell him.

"Very well, it was shortly after the marking of the first circle point for the circle, July, 1558 at Riviere. 2 days after I'd helped carve the crest of blood, as Pride and I were wrapping things up there, I began to feel a longing, watching as the survivors held each other close, I felt cruel and painful inside at taking away the lives of those we'd used for the crest, and hollow and longing as I saw the warmth they all shared, the sweet feelings of real love, not carnal desires. But the important part, of me feeling guilty, prompted me to speak to Father about it, if perhaps there was another way. He immediately refused and rebuked me, and threatened to destroy me if I ever spoke out like that again" I start, causing Edward's hardened face to soften some.

"Almost 200 years later, after the incident at Fisk in 1799, I'd had enough. So I went to Father and explained my refusal, but instead of threatening to destroy me outright, he had found out about how I wanted to be human, I'd mentioned it to Envy a while earlier, and he in turn must have told Father. He was rather amused that I wanted to be human so badly, questioning my sanity. I told him how I wanted to find people to love, maybe even a partner, but I needed to be human for that, I was sure I'd regret trying to be with someone while still immortal. So he made me a deal; he said if I help him with the grand plan, and help him gain ultimate power, he would end the painful ache I had of desiring to be human, he'd take it away forever, fix all my problems" I explain tearfully, hoping he wouldn't hate me.

"So you kept obeying him, kept killing even though you knew it was wrong?" Edward asks quietly, the rage hidden beneath his flat tone. I fell to my knees, I could tell he was furious.

"I mostly obeyed out of fear of being destroyed, thus ruining any chance of ever getting Father to fulfill the promise, but in a way, yes, I ignored my feelings and buried them, so in all honesty, I probably deserve to be destroyed. So if you want, then please, do it, I just ask that you do it quickly, if you're willing that is" I finish, crying as I close my eyes and await my fate.

**Edward Elric**

I knew that things weren't so concrete anymore; just as Psyagon had warned was possible, the real people were much more complex and different than what was imagined, or it could be the specific information of a completely different universe from my own. Regardless, Lust wasn't the complete and total bitch I'd seen in the Brotherhood anime, she was different deep down. So I knew what had to be done. As I offered her a hand, she cringed, apparently expecting the movement to indicate I was going to hit her, but after a moment she cracked one of her eyes open a tiny bit and saw that my hand she thought was to strike her, was a friendly grasp awaiting a handshake.

"If you're really serious about this Lust, about becoming human and atoning for the atrocities you've committed, then take my hand, I promise, I'll end this whole nightmare someday soon" I say kindly as I smile, trying to imitate the famous "Son grin" I'd seen Goku and Psyagon do.

"You-You'd just spare me like that?" she asks timidly, her tone indicating disbelief.

"Hey, I did it for your brothers didn't I?" I reply with a reassuring tone. This seemed to convince her, and she took my hand, smiling lightly as I helped her to her feet.

"Everything we knew about humans, that Father claims they are, its all wrong, they can be strong, they stand tall with each other" she says with tearful eyes.

"Yeah, that's where human's are strongest, together as one" I reply as I pat her back. It was then that Hughes walked forward and stood before Lust, and looked at her angrily. I knew he couldn't kill her, so I decided I'd let him do whatever he wanted to get his anger out.

"I should hate you for trying to kill me homunculus, not for the act itself so much, but for how you would have taken me from my beloved wife Gracia and darling baby daughter Elicia" Hughes begins, causing Lust to lower her head down to her chest.

"But, given that you're feeling sorry, and want to change, I can't destroy you, so this should be punishment enough" Hughes says as he raises his hands up to shoulder level.

Then, with a speed that surprised us all, he snapped Lust's neck, causing her to crumple to the ground.

"HUGHES! How could you?-"

"Relax, watch" I say as I cut off the shocked Lieutenant Ross, and Lust gets back up, her neck sparking with red energy as her neck realigns and she repositions the bones.

"Damn it, a little warning next time? That was really painful" Lust says irritably.

"Hey that move would have killed most people, I only did it cause I knew you've live due to the discussion I overheard you and Edward discussing when I was still dying, good substitute for asking Fullmetal to give you what you really deserve isn't it?" Hughes replies as he looks my way with a wink.

"I suppose you're right, I do apologize for attempting to end your life Lieutenant Colonel Hughes, Father found out that you were getting close to the truth about the ultimate plan, so he sent me to do you in, I promise I'll make up for it sir" Lust replies respectfully.

"Thank you, and you can start by explaining yourself to my wife and daughter, after all-" he begins as he reaches into his pocket.

"My darling angel and precious little cutie pie deserve an apology for what you almost did don't you agree?" he shouts with a sickeningly sweet lovey voice. We all promptly facevaulted at this display.

"(Groan) Not even half an hour since you narrowly escaped death by the skin of your teeth, and already you're doing that again?" I say as I get up.

"Seriously though Ms. Lust, you need to explain yourself to my wife and child, if it hadn't been for Edward, I'd be gone, and then the boy would have had to tear himself up trying to explain to my Gracia how he'd let her down, and my daughter down, and my best friend Mustang-"

"Yeah yeah, we get the point, Hughes, you take Lust home right away, and stay there for now, you'll be safe for the period of time it takes me to deal with this" I say as I interrupt him before he really gets into talking about his family.

"Oh right, come on Ma'am, I gotta escort you to my family" he says as he begins to walk back toward the exit.

"You two, come with me, I need to get Armstrong and heal any injuries he may have" I say, causing them to salute me.

"Now who said I was injured?" Armstrong's voice says from behind me.

"You're kidding me, even that tap wasn't enough to knock you out?" I moan, as I turn around and face the half naked alchemist.

"The thing is, you did mange to, it just didn't last as long as you'd hoped, I was awake after 5 minutes, we Armstrongs don't go down easily!" Major Armstrong says boisterously as he stands with his hands on his hips.

"Ugh, ok, I get it, so how much did you hear Alex?" I sigh, having a good feeling as to how far he'd heard our conversation.

"I know all the sensitive information, Edward Elric, please accept my apology for trying to-"

"Yeah, you may as well stop kissing up, apart from us both knowing that you didn't stand a chance of beating me, brown nosing does not work with me dumbass" I say angrily as I cut off Armstrong and look him in the eyes.

"(Gulp) Oh, yes, forgive me Fullmetal, so what are we gonna do now?" Armstrong asks, his tone returning to a serious one.

"Well first thing, I'm going to go pay Wrath a visit, and mess with their heads" I say as I get a great idea.

"What are you up to Fullmetal?" the giant asks as I smirk and think up alchemic formulas in my head for my plan.

"Just watch" I smirk as I clap my hands, and become surrounded with a very bright burst of blue light and alchemic discharges. After several minutes, the light and smoke died down, and I was my original size and shape from before my journey into Psyagon's world. Armstrong and his men were clearly in complete shock.

"Well now, shall we go pay King Bradley a visit and explain the "mix-up" everyone?" I state with a wink. Maria caught onto my idea and laughed as I began to lead them out to the exit.


	17. Chapter 17 Stole My Name

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 17: Stole My Name**

**Maes Hughes**

As Lust and I walked to my car, I smiled, proud at how Edward had spared her, she would probably make a fine woman for a lucky guy once we figured out how to help her become mortal. For now, I knew that we just had to act like this had all been a mistake, I had figured out Edward's plan, and given how few people knew the truth, it could be pulled off.

"So Lust, have you ever had Apple Pie?" I remark as I think of my wife's cooking and start the car.

"I can't remember, is that the food you humans put a lot of sugar, fruit and syrupy stuff into, then bake in an oven?" she replies.

"That's the one! You have to try my wife's apple pie, its almost as delightful as her!" I gush, as I think of my darling woman.

"Alright, very well, I'll indulge you; but just because I've changed sides and betrayed Father doesn't mean we're friends" she says with a dangerous edge to her voice.

"Oh of course, I know I gotta win your friendship, but I know someone you'll be unable to say no to being friends with if she asks" I continue as I pull out of the parking lot.

"Oh? And who might that be Hughes?" she asks with a curious tone.

Pulling out 3 pictures of my little girl, I held them up to her face. "My little sweetums Elicia! Isn't she just adorable!" I gush as I get on the road.

"Please, just show her off when we get to your apartment" she says with an annoyed tone.

"Ok then, you'll get the full experience!" I say cheerfully as I head for home.

**Edward Elric**

As I walked out the door, I smirked, loving how this little form was now just a show, to fool the military.

"So Fullmetal, what are we doing if I might ask?" Denny says nervously, obviously afraid of my new powers.

"I'm gonna tell the good Führer how I barely managed to survive the explosion from the lab, and how I managed to get a doctor in a small town and convinced him to heal me with his stone, then afterward, that monster showed up. The fiend kidnapped me and went on a rampage to tarnish my good name, after I'd witnessed it appear from a glowing doorway, the thing having questioned me before he began his vendetta" I explain, as they gasp.

"You're a real sneak Fullmetal" Denny chuckles.

"Yeah, only you would come up with something so underhanded and lame pip-" Maria begins, cutting herself short she sees my face.

"Well you get the point, are you sure they'd fall for that, seems like your power has gone to your head, its up in the clouds a little I think" she resumes, causing me to sigh with annoyance.

"Look, my head isn't in the clouds, I'm perfectly rational, because of how few people know what has transpired, it will work out per…(Gasp) THE PLANE!" I scream as I remember the scramjet I'd made earlier that day was still floating above Central, hidden by cloud cover.

"The what?" Denny and Maria ask in unison.

"Plane, whats a plane?" Armstrong remarks as well.

"Nevermind, just get the car started, we're going to be heading to see the Führer once I'm done with this last little chore" I remark as I teleport up to the jet.

**Alex Louis Armstrong**

As Edward vanished, I couldn't help but feel amazed, his powers were now unreal, somehow he could vanish into thin air, what sort of sorcery could he have learned?

"I'm back, ok lets go guys" he says casually as he reappears before us.

"Um…-" I begin, unable to think of anything to say I was so shocked.

"(Growl) You can ask all the questions you want on the ride to Central Command, just hurry up, I wanna get back to Winry" Edward says annoyedly.

"Uh, of course" I reply as I lead them to my car. After piling in, we began to drive to Central Command.

"So Edward, what exactly happened to you?" I ask with worry, it was not normal for one to simply gain such incredible power without a heavy price.

"Well I can't give you all the details now cause the story is too long for the short trip this will be, but I can tell you this, I'm not human anymore" he says as I hear something rustling in his coat.

"AHHHH! TAIL, MONKEY TAIL!" Denny and Maria scream, causing me to nearly swerve of the road.

"What the devil are you talking about…(Gasp)" I say as I turn around and see the golden furry tail wrapped around Ed's waist.

"Yeah, again I can't explain it all till later, but basically, thanks to this dude I met beyond our own realm of existence, he taught me the insider story about Alchemy, and I unlocked the natural power of my life force energy or Ki, granting me superhuman levels of strength, speed, endurance, reaction time, senses, and the ability to project my Ki in a variety of ways and uses ranging from pure destructive power, to healing of mystic proportions" he smiles as he mentions his new powers.

"Whoa…you must be incredibly powerful to have defeated Major Armstrong with just a poke" Maria says with amazement. As I recalled that moment, I felt my chest throb again from the memory, it was still very sore, but I couldn't let him know that, he'd never let me live it down; the mighty Strong Arm Alchemist, knocked out by a simple flick of a finger, how humiliating.

"Ha, if you thought that was a display of strength, then you must not have realized I was holding back more than 99.999999 percent of my full power when I touched him" Edward laughs.

"Wait, you mean…-" I start as I turn pale and begin to realize just how much he'd restrained himself.

"That's right Alex, I really wasn't trying; you could pit all the inhabitants and weapons of Amestris at me at once, I'd take them all down without even having to give it my all" he says with a confident tone.

"Ok, how is that even possible, I mean, sure I've heard of a one man army, but, what you're suggesting is that your power is greater than an entire nation" Denny remarks as we reach the street leading to Central Command, or rather what was left of it.

"You're still way off Denny, my full power is beyond comprehension, if I told you, you'd instantly panic, so I'm waiting till we're in a place where its not a security risk to have a massive freakout" Edward sighs.

"Wow, that intense huh?" Maria asks worriedly.

"Yeah, no lie" Edward says in agreement, just as we reach the entrance.

"We're here everyone, so can we go over the plan one more time?" I ask Edward as I park and look him in the face. He smiled and began to whisper to us all the details.

**Winry Rockbell**

"(Sigh) Where is that big lug? Its already been over a half hour since he left, what could be keeping him?" I sigh as I look at the clock.

"Relax Winry, I'm sure he's fine, its not like anything can kill him, he's a superhuman alien now" Alphonse says as walks over with clunking footsteps.

"I know, its just, I can't help but worry because I…you know…-" I mumble, feeling uneasy talking about that around Al.

"Love him?" he finishes for me. I instantly blushed furiously.

"Is it that obvious?" I sigh.

"Yes dear, it certainly is, I've seen the way you have nightmares while he's out traveling" my grandmother comments as she walks by with a load of laundry.

"Oh man, was Edward the only one who didn't catch it before?" I gasp, realizing that it must have been apparent to Al and Granny for a while now.

"Yeah, brother has always been clueless" Al remarks as he stands with me.

"(Breathes deeply and sighs) I hope he comes back, we still haven't caught up on all that's happened to him" I say as I look out the window and stare at the sky, expecting him to just swoop down like a living bullet. Suddenly I did see a twinkle in the sky, and began to feel hopeful.

"Hey, Al, what is that?" I ask as I point to where I'd seen the reflection.

"Hmmmm, I'm not sure, but its getting closer, and it seems to be headed this way, lets go outside and get a better look" he replies.

"These might help" granny says as she hands us a pair of binoculars.

"Thanks" I reply as I rush out the door, scanning the skies to try and find the object I'd lost track of.

"There it is" Al shouts as he points his finger to the area right in my line of sight. I quickly focused the lenses and saw it was the scramjet Edward had made before.

"Looks like he decided to take the longer trip home" I say as the jet swoops in, landing gracefully with a hover as its turbines rotated to slow its descent. As the door opened, I quickly rushed in expecting Edward to be there and shouted, "Hey, welcome back!"

Instead I was greeted with an empty cabin.

"Um, I don't think he's here" Al remarks as he walks in behind me.

"Hey Winry, whats up?" Ed states, his voice sounding as if by radio or telephone.

"Ed, I'm here can you hear me?" I ask as I look around for a receiver piece to use and talk back.

"If you're getting this message it means the plane arrived safely back at our house, and that means the autopilot function worked flawlessly. Anyways, I'm gonna be a little while longer cause I have to initiate a plan to make it seem as if that incident in Central was caused by a monster and not me, gonna make Bradley feel like a worthless dumb bag of shit! HA HA HA! Oh and one last thing, make sure you capsulate the plane so it isn't discovered by accident, just press the switch inside the panel on the outside of the hull near the nose of the craft to compress, and it will be done. Anyways, I love you and I'll try to get home as soon as I can, bye" Ed's voice laughs as the statement ends.

"Should have guessed, a recording, well at least we have the plane back, I wanna learn how to fly it" I say as we walk out of the plane. After following his instructions and reverting the plane to its capsule form, which was beyond amazing, we went back inside. Al decided he'd keep the capsule in his armor for the time being, and so we went back to waiting on Edward's return.

**Führer King Bradley/Wrath**

Having relocated to the East Wing, I now sat with paperwork to fill out, regarding the deaths of most of the senior military staff, and countless hundreds of employees killed by Edward Elric.

"How the hell could he have gotten so fast? It just doesn't seem possible, and my Ultimate Eye, why did scan seem incomplete, it's never malfunctioned before, could I have made an error somehow?" I grumble to myself as I sign off on the death certificates.

"Sir, the Fullmetal Alchemist is here to see you" one of the men working as my attendants states, causing my eyes to widen.

"What the hell, why did you just let him walk in here, TELL HIM TO STAY AWAY FROM MY OFFICE!" I bellow as I grab my swords and prepare to defend myself.

"Führer Bradley, whats going on, are you ok?" the voice of Edward says as he walks in casually.

Wait…he was short again? Something was out of place, and I needed to find out what.

"Edward Elric! What in the blazes are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be dead?" I inquire with a shocked tone.

"Yeah, but you know me, I promised my brother I wouldn't die till we got our bodies back, but it seems fate had a bit of a twist for me after that explosion at the Fifth Laboratory" he says as he shows off his right arm and left leg.

"Your limbs are back, but how, and more importantly, how the hell did you survive a blast of that size?" I continue, calming myself and regaining my composure.

"By the skin of my teeth, through some insane luck, the explosion didn't instantly incinerate me, but by pure luck, it sent me hurtling into the sky, where I landed on a bale of hay just outside a doctor's house in a little town in the east. Crawling with my last breath, I begged him to heal me if he could, and miraculously, he was able to, and restored my limbs at the same time" Edward says as he shows off his restored arm and leg.

"So you're not related to a tall blonde man with inhuman speed and strength?" I ask, causing him to laugh.

"Please, don't tell me you mean Van Hoenheim, that joker, I don't even consider him a friend much less my father or family" he laughs.

"No, this man was muscular, and he didn't have a beard or glasses, infact he looked like you" I continue, causing him to become shocked, his eyes wide.

"Wait, did he claim he was Edward Elric?" Edward asks with a fearful voice.

"Yes, he did" I respond with a serious tone. Instantly, Edward slammed the wall with his fist.

"DAMN IT! So same guy who stole my name, he's the one that destroyed the middle of Central Command, that bastard!" he yells angrily.

"So you have met him?" I press as I see the information beginning to make sense of itself.

"Yeah, you might find this hard to believe sir, but that man…that thing, he and I met back at the town the doctor healed me in, just 2 days after I escaped death. The monster just…appeared out of nowhere" Edward replies, his tone distraught.

"Please, explain everything you know, this monster is an even bigger threat than scar, he actually almost killed me, tore apart security like it was nothing, even my best personal guards were no match for him, they were reduced to ashes where they stood. So I'm begging you, tell me anything you can about this…creature" I say as I sit down and await a reply.

"Well, on the second morning after the initial healing work the doctor did, I was outside enjoying a breath of fresh air, when suddenly, a glowing portal of somekind appeared, and a tall, muscled man with long blonde hair and a monkey like tail of the same color walked out of it, the portal vanished as soon as he got out" Edward begins, immediately catching my interest.

"Then…the man came to me, and started asking questions, but more like making statements, like he already knew the answers. The worst part was…I heard him in my head" the boy continues, his face contorting to show horror.

"In your head? Please be more clear, that doesn't make much sense son" I reply as I wait for more info.

"Hi…his voice, I heard it, in my mind, not with my ears, but with my brain, he was talking directly into my thoughts, and I think he was somehow reading my memories and thoughts too, a term called telepathy came up during the exchange, and it made my head hurt! HE WAS IN MY MIND!" Edward shouts as he begins to hyperventilate and panic.

"Edward, Edward calm down! Please, you're going to go into a panic attack if you don't, or worse, calm down for the sake of your health!" I shout as I leap from my chair and put an arm on his shoulder, causing him to visibly calm.

"There, now, can you finish telling your story? Its most disturbing, but I have to know everything you do" I plead, as I had a bad feeling of what the conclusion meant.

"(Pant) Ok, the telepathic stuff…It lasted about 5 minutes, and then he started to talk for real. His voice was arrogant, creepy, and cold, like a garbled radio transmission broadcast that you hear through a long steel pipe. Anyways, he claimed he knew about everything after piecing together the knowledge he'd gained from my mind with what he'd learned from other various sources, and that he was going to not only put a stop to it, but also ruin my reputation at the same time. The guy used alchemy to copy my outfit, then…somehow began to imitate my voice, and most incredible of all…he took flight, he-he just leapt off the ground and ZOOM! he shot off like a bullet straight in the direction of central" Edward continues, his voice getting frantic again. I knew then that all this time, I'd been wrong, the man who had gone on a rampage wasn't Edward, it was some kind of monster with a man's body, as strong as Envy at least if not more. Now I really felt like a moron, Father will be furious at me for making such a stupid mistake!

"I knew I had to get there fast or something bad would happen, so I got on the first train out that night, rode straight on till morning, (Yawn) I didn't get a wink of sleep, I was still haunted by his voice, it frightened me. But even leaving that early, I still didn't make it in time, causing all this to happen, and…I'm so sorry I wasn't here when my country needed me most King Bradley" he sobs as tears fall down his face.

Yep, Father will probably hit me right in the stomach for this mistake.

"Relax Edward, the monster is gone for now, don't blame yourself, it wasn't your fault" I say calmly, trying to contain my anger at my own stupidity for making such a hasty call on this matter earlier. Hopefully, bringing Father the news about my case of mistaken identity on the same day I made the wrong call will mean he shows some leniency.

"O-Ok, hey do you know where Alphonse and Winry are?" he sniffles.

"Yes, they all stayed in Resembool after your funeral. Now I insist you return home for the time being, while we sort out this mess with the murderer from today, I'm sure they'll be overjoyed to see you're alive" I say with a smile as I pat his back and send him out the door.

"Thank you for listening to me your excellency" he replies as he salutes me.

"Of course, as a State Alchemist, your concerns are always taken seriously" I reply as I close the door after saluting him back. Once alone, I growled angrily and began to think of the best way to tell Father about my mistake.

**Edward Elric**

As soon as I walked down the hall and met back up with the waiting Major Armstrong, Lieutenant Ross, and Sergeant Brosh, I kept the act up till we'd gotten back to the car, where I promptly began to laugh my ass off.

"AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAA, HOLY SHIT! THE DUMBASS FELL FOR IT HOOK LINE AND SINKER, THEY THINK WE'RE COMPLETELY CLEAN NOW, AND THEY'RE TOTALLY UNAWARE OF OUR PLANS!" I howl as I clutch my stomach in hysterics.

"Ok, so he thinks that he was wrong and that an unidentified man/thing did that damage earlier, now the big question is, what next?" Denny asks with a frown.

"Now, we go drop by Colonel Hughes house and figure out where to hide him" I say as we change course for his apartment.

"But we prevented his assassination, doesn't that mean he's safe?" Maria remarks with confusion.

"The reason they want him dead is cause Hughes learned just about everything about this ultimate plan involving the guy who made Lust and the other Homunculi, except for a few details I was told about directly from my master, Hughes figured it all out, how the whole senior staff of the military is…or rather was, corrupt and in on it, the nation wide human transmutation circle" I explain, causing Armstrong to gasp.

"A nation wide, human transmutation circle! Then that would mean…-"

"Not quite, it does involve taking more human souls and adding them to an existing philosopher's stone, but its true purpose is far more sinister, you can hear it all from Mustang once we've finished figuring out what to do with Hughes, his safety is the one most at risk for the moment" I continue, causing all of them to become uneasy.

"Well I have an idea, you speak of your teacher's world as if it can be accessed, why not just send Hughes there and make him completely untouchable?" Armstrong suggests.

"Not a bad idea, we'll save that for a last ditch effort though, that world may be peaceful, but its unknown for how long, cause when the peace there is broken, its broken big time, they got evil creatures and beings there that can potentially be stronger than me, and you've seen how powerful I've become. I don't wanna risk getting Hughes thrown into that if I don't have to, crazy stuff like that can happen at pretty much any given moment in that world" I respond, causing Denny to shiver.

"Ok, then what can we do, I mean its not like he can just agree to keep his mouth shut and they'll let him live right?" Maria states casually, causing me to stare at her with shock as I realize the simplicity and ingenuity of her plan.

"What, is there something in my teeth?" she asks with worry as she pulls out her mirror I reverted back to normal before we left.

"No, its just…you figured out the best answer" I say, my voice still registering shock.

"I did, really?" she remarks with surprise.

"Yeah, I learned about inside information regarding our world from my teacher, and from what I know, if Hughes promises he'll shut up and agree to be observed, they might leave him alone" I say as we pull up to his apartment.

"Ok, now nobody say a word till we get inside, his apartment might be under surveillance" I state just before opening the door. Immediately the others followed suit as we got out of the car and began to head toward the entrance of his complex.

**Lust**

As I sat with Elicia, she commented on how pretty I was, and kept hugging me, I couldn't help but admire her spirit. Hughes certainly had most things people desired; a high paying respectable job, a position of power that he could climb even higher from, a faithful loving wife, and a beautiful daughter, I could hardly believe that just a short while ago, I'd almost deprived this darling child of her father, it only helped remind me of how low I'd sunk.

"Alright, the Apple Pie will be done in 5 minutes, I hope you have an appetite Ms. Lust, cause its one of my best yet" Gracia says cheerfully.

"Mommy, mommy, the nice lady said that I should be careful if I grow up to be as pretty as her, cause the guys will be all over me, what does that mean?" Elicia says with complete innocence. That was the bad part about kids, they didn't know when to keep their mouth shut. Gracia promptly glared at me.

"Uh, Elicia honey, why don't you go get daddy and tell him that the pie is almost done" Gracia says nervously, obviously hoping that the girl would leave the room soon.

"Ok!" the child shouts cheerfully as she skips down the hallway.

"Lust, come on, she's way too young to hear that kinda stuff, she doesn't even understand it; don't pollute her mind with such ideas at her age, she's supposed to be sweet and innocent for many more years before we have to tell her about the birds and the bees" Gracia scolds.

"I'm sorry, I've never had to deal with real kids before, so I'm sorta unskilled, I just need time, until I know the do's and don't s I'll consult with you in the future from now on, ok?" I ask, hoping to avoid a big argument.

"Thank you; now Ms. Lust…oh can't I call you another name, Lust sounds so…vulgar" she begins, my name clearly causing unease.

"Solaris is one of my aliases, why not just call me that?" I say offhandedly.

"Perfect! So, Solaris, what exactly are you and these…Homunculi? We're not alchemists, so we've not heard the term much" Gracia asks nervously.

"Well, I can show you actually" I reply as I grab my chest and begin to peel it open.

"AAAHHHH! WHAT ARE YOU-" she begins, turning quiet as my core becomes visible.

"The fabled Philosopher's Stone, I have one as my very center, its what sustains me, keeps me immortal, if I' am damaged the stone's power's regenerate the injuries, rendering me healthy again. But if I' am injured too much, eventually I will run out of fuel for my healing power, and permanently die" I explain, closing up my skin again once I've finished my statement.

"Oh…I see, so how old are you?" Gracia asks with newfound interest.

"Well Father extracted the stone used to make my body in 1580, about 30 years after he made my brother Pride, the first homunculus after himself, so…around 334 years give or take a few months" I say casually.

"You'd have to be immortal to stay that beautiful for over 300 years, wow, seems kinda glamorous to be able to never have to worry about wrinkles" Gracia comments to herself.

"Believe me, its every bit a curse as it is a gift, imagine outliving every relative and spawn of your relatives, and your lover, watching them vanish with the passage of time. Not so glamorous when you consider that is it?" I say snidely, amazed at how simplisticly human's viewed immortality.

"You're right, it'd only be bearable if you had people who were immortal like you to spend time with" Gracia says with a sad tone, having realized her hastiness.

"It's ok, I understand the attraction of being immortal. I can attest that immortality has its perks, but you can't ignore the blatant downsides" I state as I wrap up the conversation.

"Yes indeed, thanks for setting me straight" she says with a smile.

"Sure thing Gracia" I reply as I smile, having finally begun to relax after so many years of guilt and sadness.

"I heard the pie is almost ready, and boy am I hungry, I was almost killed today after al…uh, sorry Lust" Hughes starts, only stopping once he realized I was in the room.

"No, its justifiable, I did almost kill you, we were both given a rare second chance…my forgiveness actually seems rather unbalanced, almost too easy" I reply with a wistful smile.

"YO, HUGHES! Whats up dude?" the voice of Edward Elric shouts as the door is blown open.

**Edward Elric**

As I threw the door open, I recalled what my senses had revealed before entering. My hearing had allowed me to hear everything as soon as we entered the ground floor, what had been said just before I opened the door being most intriguing. Once within 50 feet of the door, I began to smell the faint, wafting molecules of apple pie scent, and it was delicious! As I opened the door, their faces registered shock and awe, apparently not expecting me so soon, Gracia and Elicia just stunned, I guess Hughes had forgotten to mention how I was the guy who saved him.

"Edward…can it be, is it really you?" Gracia stammers.

"ED! I knew you weren't dead, you can't die just like daddy!" Elicia shouts cheerfully as she leaps at me like a frog and attaches to my leg.

"Heh, good to see you too squirt. Also, it's a long story Mrs. Hughes, and unfortunately I can't tell you all the details right now, I'm in a bit of a rush" I say as I pry Elicia off me gently.

"Aww, you're back from the dead and you can't even stay for pie? Its fresh from the oven" she says, tempting me and my Saiyan hunger.

"Sorry, but I'm only gonna be here long enough to explain a plan involving Lust and your husband, 10 minutes at the most, I'll have to come by another time when things are less hectic for a social call" I counter.

"Alright then, would any of your gentlemen like to try my home-made apple pie?" she says, moving right onto Armstrong and his men.

"I could eat a slice or two in 10 minutes" Denny laughs.

"Sure, I'll have one" Maria adds.

"I'll take 5, as you can see, these massive muscles require tremendous levels of energy, and pie has plenty" Armstrong announces as he does a pose.

"Anyways…Lust, I was wondering if it would be possible for you to be a double agent" I continue, causing the woman to look at me with curiosity.

"Whats a double agent?" she asks with wonder.

"Its where someone working for one team, say you since you're working with us, is pretending to be a part of the other team, say, Father's now much lessened one. You are really working with us, but you pretend to still be on Father's side so you can relay information between him and us without suspicion, and given how much faith your Father has in his children, I think he won't be able to figure it out till its much too late" Hughes explains succinctly.

"I couldn't have said it any better myself, so can you do that Lust?" I reiterate, hoping she'd agree.

"Hmmm, and you'll promise that you'll still help find a way to make me human after this is all over right?" she adds.

"Of course, what would I have to gain by betraying you or going back on my word?" I reply with a smile.

"Ok then, I'll do it, so what are the specifics for this plan?" she resumes, causing me to smile.

"Alright, first, we have you go back to Father, and explain how Hughes is actually a potential sacrifice, as he was hiding alchemic gifts all these years due to an underlying fear of the government after the Ishvalan War of Extermination. Then-" I start as the details grow more complicated from there and I list them as clearly as I can they'll be sure to remember.

_10 minutes later_

**Alex Louis Armstrong**

"Mmmm, Mrs. Gracia, this pie is simply amazing. I do believe I speak for my men and me when I say we will be visiting more often" I say as I give her a thumbs up.

"Thank you, I'm glad you all liked it" she says with a smile.

"Yeah, that was the best apple pie I ever had, the only thing I've had that compares is my mother's strawberry peach cobbler supreme" Maria adds.

"Mmmm, if you cook everything as well as these apple pies, I'm gonna have to consider finding a way to become part of your family so I have a reasonable excuse to come here more often" Denny jokes, causing us to all laugh.

"Alright everyone, visiting time is over, we're done here" Edward says as he walks into the room.

"Awww, I wanted a few more piece of pie" I say as I clutch my growling stomach.

"I'll make you something on the ride to the train station, now get your asses in gear!" Edward snaps as his eyebrow twitches, I knew that meant I really didn't wanna try his patience.

Saying our goodbyes, and patting sweet little Elicia on the head, we gave our regards to Hughes as Lust walked out with us and turned to head the opposite direction back to Central Command. After getting in the car, Edward sighed and laughed.

"Today has been going very well if I might say so, I was worried being a living embodiment of raw power might change how I act, but so far I think the alterations to my personality have only been slight if at any" he chuckles as he lifts his feet up and rests them on the headrest of the empty chair next to me upfront.

"I don't know, but one thing that's for sure is your ego has grown more than three times its size" Maria comments, eliciting laughter from everyone but Edward.

"OH JUST SHUT THE HELL UP!" he snaps, causing us to laugh even harder. After finally regaining our wits, I sighed, appreciating Maria's quip about his ego, it helped me relax enough to act casual around the now warrior sage like elder Elric brother.

"So my boy, why exactly do we need to go to the train station? From what I know, you can fly, so it hardly seems necessary" I comment as I take note of how pointless transportation is for a man who can move through the sky under his own power.

"Hey, his "excellency" Bradley is keeping close tabs on us, I don't know how firm his doubt in what he saw earlier is enough to make him turn a blind eye to our activities. So I gotta make sure it seems I'm still the same old, human alchemist. I'll explain once we get to the station" he replies with a serious tone. As we got on the main road, I began to wonder just what had happened to make Edward so…superhuman. Hopefully I'd get my answers soon, as my worries over the boy's new strength were making me edgy.


	18. Chapter 18 Dublith On The Double!

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 18: Dublith On The Double!**

**Lust**

Having snuck into the bowels of Central, I quickly reached Father and bowed respectfully.

"So you have returned, is Hughes dead?" he asks as he fingers a chess piece.

"No, he escaped, the man still lives" I say calmly, anticipating him to lose his cool like earlier today.

"How did this happen?" he continues, remaining calm. I knew now it was time to sell the acting, or I'd be dead.

"He used alchemy Father" I reply, causing him to turn around and face me.

"Alchemy? I was under the impression that he was just a soldier, not an alchemist, plus I've never felt him tapping into my power, explain that" he says with suspicion.

"Apparently he has been hiding it for years from everyone, even his own family. Plus, he didn't use traditional alchemy, it was formed from an unfamiliar array, it makes me wonder…" I say mysteriously, causing Father's interest to be aroused.

"Wonder what? Tell me child" he demands.

"I believe Hughes is actually a potential candidate for sacrifice, and perhaps it would be in our best benefits to keep him alive" I reply coolly.

"He knows too much, what if he leaked the entire plan to the nation, then all the centuries of plotting would be for naught, and you will never become human!" he shouts, barely keeping his cool.

"You wouldn't kill the Elric Brothers if they learned too much would you?" I ask sarcastically.

"They are confirmed, important sacrifices, they have both seen the Truth, that is fact, so I' am forced to adapt and deal with the knowledge they learn. Also, they can be manipulated through the people they care about. Hughes however is not confirmed, and even if he is a potential sacrifice, he would still have to see the Truth, and I doubt someone with morals such as his would be willing to open the portal of his own accord. Furthermore, without Pride, I would have to sacrifice unnecessary power to force him to do it myself" Father counters.

"You're wrong, we can manipulate and control Hughes, you forget his family" I argue, causing his anger to fade into curiosity.

"His family, is it not like the average one, highly dysfunctional and weakly bonded?" he inquires with curiosity.

"Quite the opposite, I've seen how he talks about his family among his co-workers and subordinates. Normally that's when dissatisfied men or women discuss their problems at home, among friends. Hughes does not have any, he carries around multiple photographs of his wife and daughter, and constantly gushes and brags about them to everyone. Plus, before Envy's defection, he confided in me that he'd once see his family visiting the man at work, and they were all alone in his office, nothing mean or cynical was uttered the whole time, only happy statements and joyous laughter. The Hughes family is a highly cohesive unit, I'd dare say its even idyllic from what I heard" I explain, causing him to rub his chin in thought.

"With that level of devotion to his loved ones, we could easily keep him quiet by threatening their safety, and likely even convince him to open the portal willingly" Father remarks, apparently haven taken a liking to my idea.

"Exactly, so he can be used to suit the ultimate plan, we just need to remind him how much influence we have" I say with a fake wicked tone as I change the fingers on one of my hands to claws. I amazed at how easily Father was falling for my lies. It seemed they were right, he did have too much faith in us, it would surely be his downfall.

"Very well then, confront Hughes and explain that if he does not keep his mouth shut, I will kill his wife and child, but not before slowly torturing them for days. But if he will cooperate, maybe I will spare them, perhaps even from the final plan" Father says monotonously, his usual emotionless tone returning.

"I knew you would listen to reason, I just hope Hughes will too, for his sake" I say with a fake chuckle of malicious intent.

"FATHER! I have bad news" Wrath's voice bellows as he rushes into the chamber.

"Wrath, what are you doing here?" Father asks, apparently surprised.

"Its about Edward Elric" Wrath says solemnly.

"I thought you already told me all the information I needed to know this morning, about how Edward gained some new form of power" Father remarks, I knew this would be good, Edward had told me about the lies he'd used to fool Bradley into second guessing himself.

"Well I have made a grave mistake, the beast that attacked, it was not the Fullmetal Alchemist" Wrath says nervously, showing he was indeed afraid of what Father would think about his error in fact checking.

"You said you used your Ultimate Eye, and that it proved the thing was indeed Edward Elric" Father says in response, his tone filled with hidden anger.

"Well I thought so too, until Edward Elric dropped by for a personal visit just 15 minutes ago. Apparently that explosion at the Fifth Laboratory didn't kill him, but instead flung the boy into a village in the East. He landed in bale of hay, barely alive, but managed to reach a doctor's house, where he was healed, even having the limbs he'd lost after his trip through the portal. I believe its likely he found Dr. Marcoh, and he used a Philosopher's Stone to save the boy's life" Wrath continues, causing Father to show genuine shock.

"You mean to say that, that monster from this morning was not Edward Elric? But then…how could your eye have made such a mistake, it is after all, an Ultimate Eye" Father says with suspicion.

"Well actually, Edward is connected with the creature too, in a similar way that he's associated with the Ishvalan known as Scar. He was attacked by it in the village. It appeared right infront of him just days after his life was saved. He said the creature came from a glowing doorway that appeared from thin air. He also said the creature was telepathic, meaning it can see thoughts and memories from others, and communicate directly into the mind as well. Among the other feats Edward says it performed, it copied his voice, demonstrated super strength, and flew under its own power" Wrath starts, Father struggling to remain calm as Wrath spoke.

"The description of this thing Edward Elric encountered yesterday matches the one we saw just hours ago exactly, and like Fullmetal also claimed, the creature did infact impersonate his mannerisms and voice, the boy is telling the truth. Somehow the creature has a body structure similar to Edward, only that of a more mature and powerful build, I believe it may even be a shapeshifter like Envy. The truth is we have been attacked by a still unknown assailant, I was completely and utterly wrong, please forgive me Father" Wrath says as he kneels down and speaks with a humble and apologetic tone. After several moments of silence, Father turned his back and began to walk toward his throne.

"You are to double check everything before reporting to me from now on Wrath, apparently you've gained the human's habit of jumping to conclusions too hastily, now begone" he says with a dismissive hand wave.

"I…yes Father" Wrath says with a bow as he promptly leaves in shame, I almost laughed out loud at how hilariously successful Edward had been at making Wrath look like a complete and utter fool.

"Lust, my last obedient, and competent child, please prove your superiority to Wrath by being successful with this new plan involving Maes Hughes, and you'll be that much closer to becoming human" he says kindly. I promptly knelt and bowed to complete the illusion of my continued loyalty.

"I promise you, I won't fail" I reply as I lift my head back up. Noticing Father dismissing me as well, I turned and left to head back to Hughes apartment, where I would keep a close eye on him, just like Father wanted. After getting back on the street, I leapt to a rooftop and began jumping back toward Hughes apartment, then said to myself, "I'll make sure I don't fail in helping take you down permanently you heartless creep"

_4 Weeks Later_

**Edward Elric**

"Come on brother, do another" Armor Al begs.

"Yeah, they're always funny, I wanna see you do my pops" Envy laughs as he sits there munching on a mutton.

"Take it easy, the boy has already done 10 impressions with his powers, don't you think he should take a break?" Penako sighs.

"Oh granny, you know full well it takes a lot more than that to exhaust Ed nowadays, sometimes he has to go burn off terrawatts of energy just to be able to sleep at night, go on, show us" Winry laughs encouragingly.

"Indeed, I wanna see how you view my doppelganger" Hoemheim chuckles.

"Ok, ok, gimme a second" I reply as I take a moment to think of the formulas needed to alter my facial structure. After figuring them out, my face warped forms in a burst of blue alchemic discharge, my head now a perfect replica of Father and his pale, sandy blonde hair. Hunching over to act like an old man, I began my impression.

"I'm the mighty and terrible Father, creator of the Homunculi. I'm a living Philosopher's Stone and can do alchemy without following the law of equivalent exchange by mere thought, but if I knew that Edward and the monster who attacked Central were one and the same, I'd probably shit my pants and beg for my miserable life!" I say with a shaky elderly accent. Everyone promptly laughed their asses off, even Envy.

"OH HO HOOO! Ed, I never knew you had such skills with comedy" Envy laughs as he wipes his eyes.

"Yeah, I bet you could even make teacher laugh now" Body Al says with a laugh. I smiled as I returned my face to normal, I'd seen marked improvement in Alphonse's body since rescuing it from the portal; his bones were no longer visible, and clothes could fit him once more. Using my powers, I was even able to reverse his muscular atrophy, but he was still getting used to moving around, he'd not used them for 3 years after all. But he was recovering faster than anticipated, which was good.

To add to the good news, thanks to my plan to fool Father working, the barrier around Eastern Command was taken down weeks ago on the same day I'd made it, so nobody other than our friends and the staff who worked there are aware of what occurred. Afterward, the rest of our pal that weren't in the loop before were informed about everything I'd told Mustang and his men as well. Best of all, thanks to the combined loyalty the soldiers have to Lieutenant General Grumman, and my new extremely fear inspiring presence, none of them dared to utter a word about the events involving me and the Homunculi.

Now, Pride had returned to his adoptive mother, covering up his betrayal to Father by having claimed that Lust had been a little hasty with her accusation that he had defected. Luckily, Pride defended her, so her lot in Father's trust pool wasn't lowered any. Gluttony though, like Envy, had chosen to openly defect from the bastard. This evening though, he was currently being kept bound with Adamantium cable, after attempting to eat our dog Den, the poor girl. Things began to go much smoother once Gluttony was restrained though, and we had finally loosened up and reached this point.

"Hey, if there's one thing I know deep down, its that teacher needs to see something very intense and clever to be made to laugh, a simple impression just won't do, no matter how good" Armor Al argues.

"HA HA! Yeah, Teacher sure wouldn't…(hears a shattering sound in my head)" I begin, when a sudden realization hit me like a mountain crashing on my skull.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH! TEACHER, WE FORGOT TO TELL HER ABOUT ALL THIS, SHE'S STILL IN THE DARK!" I bellow, causing the house to rumble slightly.

"(Gasp) Oh no, brother, we have to go see her, she's gonna be furious that we didn't tell her sooner!" Armor Al shouts with fear.

"Well it's only 5:50 PM, the train doesn't leave for another 10 minutes, so you could easily make it if you just-"

"Al, get ready, we're headed for Dublith" I shout, interrupting Penako as I grab my coat and transmute my body to its short stature once more, then transmute the coat to fit me.

"Right, so how are we getting there? The scramjet, flying through the open sky, or the fast way, teleporting?" he asks excitedly as his armor body rattles from jumping up and down.

"No, I'm afraid we can't use those when we plan to have extended public trips anymore. Bradley is keeping a close eye on me and you Al, and that means that if I slip up once, he'll figure out I lied to him and that it really was me who made a mess of Central after coming back home. So we're gonna have to take the train" I sigh.

"Awww, oh well, train rides can be fun too, but can we at least teleport close to the station to make sure we make it?" Armor Al says happily. That was one of the qualities I liked about my brother, he didn't let anything get him down so easily.

"Sure, I was planning on that anyways, after all, we do have to buy tickets before we board after all" I say with a smile.

"Bye dad, bye granny, bye Gluttony, bye Body, we'll try to not take too long" Al shouts as he waves to them. Grabbing my things quickly, we sped out the door, eager to get there as fast as possible.

"Hold on there mister!" Winry snaps, causing the two of us to freeze mid-step just before reaching the edge of the walkway.

"I remember the other day when you were pointing out stuff on the map about Amestris and key locations you'd discussed with your master Psyagon. Well guess whats on the way to Dublith?" she asks sarcastically.

"Oh no, please don't tell me…-"

"That's right Rush Valley, the boomtown of the broken-down, and since your out-of universe trip and biological rebirth into an invulnerable extraterrestrial has cost me my prime sources of automail work-" she starts, cutting me off while pointing at my right arm and left leg.

"-you're gonna take me there, you owe me a way to continue with my passion" she says angrily.

"Ok ok, I'll take you, just please don't get mad, you know its no longer possible for you to adequately take out your frustration on me due to what I've become" I say quickly, hoping to quell her temper.

"Yeah, remember last week? The monkey wrench incident" Armor Al says, recalling when Winry had attempted to smack me with said wrench after I'd accidentally broken an automail leg that I picked up and gripped a little too hard. Winry gasped and covered her mouth, apparently feeling guilty about it, despite the fact that she'd only hurt herself in the process.

"Yeah, I broke my arm trying to clock you with it, and then you used your powers to heal me even though I'd over reacted" she says quietly.

"Hey relax, I don't hold it against you, I just don't want you to cry" I reply with a smile as I put an arm around her shoulder.

"Thanks, that means a lot Ed" she says, smiling back.

"Hey, wait for me!" Envy shouts as he rushes up to us.

"You too? Come on, I already have to buy 3 tickets, can't you fly there or something!" I shout, irritated that Envy wanted to mooch off me too.

"Hey, you're rich, get over it. Also, its not Rush Valley I'm interested in, its Dublith, and there's a personal reason I want to go, an old acquaintance of me and the other Homunculi might be there" Envy replies with a smirk.

"Oh, so you're going our way, alright sure, but how do you know this acquaintance is in Dublith?" I retort.

"When I last saw him, he told me, "I'll be near the moon in the eye". It took me a long time to figure it out, but I eventually did from maps and geography. Yock Island is shaped similar to the waxing crescent phase of the moon, and Lake Kauroy is kinda shaped like an eye, so that means he's probably in that area somewhere, likely Dublith" Envy explains with a smile.

"Very well then, you can accompany us, but you'll have to have a disguise, we don't want anyone getting word that you're traveling with us, Father might get suspicious" I say as I smile back.

"Sure, how about this one?" Envy says as he snaps his finger, having figured out what disguise he wanted to use. Suddenly, his head and body began to change, until everything but his face, excluding the eyes, looked exactly like…

"Oh no, you're not worthy to take that visage!" I shout as I whack him upside the head.

"Why not? Its just an appearance, don't be so uptight Fullmetal" he whines, rubbing the spot my powerful blow had struck.

"I'm serious, you really don't deserve to look like that; Goku is completely free of innocent blood on his hands, he has never killed a single person that wasn't evil. So to use his form, tarnishes what he stands for, absolute goodness and complete childlike innocence, you're clearly nowhere near that pure and saintly" I chastise, causing Envy to sigh.

"Ok fine, you have a point I guess; very well, how about this one?" he grumbles as he begins to change form again. This time, he settled for a custom form, but it actually looked quite similar to a character I'd learned about from my master, but that I wasn't sure we'd end up meeting anymore; old man Fu, with an outfit similar to that of the Silver Alchemist, Giolio Comanche.

"Yeah, that's fine, now everyone hold on" I say as I hold out my arm.

"Wait, Edward!" Hoenheim says as he rushes out, his tone filled with urgency.

"Oh, you wanted to say good bye dad?" I ask as he stops right infront of us.

"That, and the fact that I need to return this to you" he says as he reaches into his pocket, pulling out the necklace with the mystic crystal from Psyagon I'd loaned him all those weeks ago in an attempt to figure out how to use it.

"Sorry I wasn't able to figure out anything new regarding its operation, I tried my best" he says wistfully.

"Its ok, we'll figure it out someday" I say as I hug him.

"By the way, I'm not gonna be at the Rockbell home when you get back. I'm leaving tomorrow to go back to my plan, I still have to complete the counter circle, just in case" Hoenheim says with a smile.

"I know, and don't use more than you have to, you're not gonna have to fight Father anymore, I'll handle everything when the time comes" I say solemnly as I pat his back.

"Good bye dad, I'll miss you" Al says as he hugs him.

"I'll miss you both boys, and don't worry, I'll be fine, most of the Homunculi are on our side now after all" he says with a laugh as he hugs Al. Then, after hugging Winry, and giving Envy a handshake, he begins to walk back inside.

With our good byes done at last, I put my arm out again for the others to hold onto. After they'd grabbed it, I teleported us just outside the station, where we promptly ran and bought tickets for our trips, piling on the train post-haste afterward.

_2 Days Later_

**Alphonse Elric**

After visiting with Hughes shortly yesterday afternoon once arriving in Central while waiting on our connecting train to Rush Valley, we finally reached the town of automail by mid-morning. Envy strangely seemed to enjoy the train rides as I did, I'd figured him for one who can't stand to sit still like Ed unless forced to. As we walked into town, Winry kept gasping and gushing over the automail in hysteric wonder.

"Automail, automail, AUTOMAIL!" she giggles with glee as she hops around like a child in a candy store. We all sighed with embarrassment at her behavior, it just was too weird when she acted like this.

"Your girl is obsessed with this stuff Fullmetal, maybe you'd have more luck if you got another automail limb replacement so she'd stick around you" Envy jokes with a sly smile.

"That's not funny Envy!" Edward snaps angrily. I couldn't help but laugh at how clever the homunculus was. As they kept arguing, I decided to take a look around, see if there was anything interesting while they kept an eye on Winry. As I walked down the street, I saw many interesting kinds of automail and their purveyors of trade, some were quite unique.

"Hey sir" a man's voice says from behind me. The moment I turned around, a guy with an automail eye was holding out my arm and examining it.

"Everyone, take a look at this gentleman's arm, its so light, almost weightless" he announces as he holds up and displays my right limb.

"Whoa, is his entire body made of automail?" another man comments as they begin to close in on me.

"Hey, wait, please don't crowd me, stooooop!" I plead as they begin to swarm me like bees around honey. Within moments I was covered from head to toe with engineers and curious bystanders.

"AAAHHHHH, BROTHERRRRR!" I scream as loud as I can, hoping the crowd's shouting wasn't enough to drown out my voice to his super sensitive Saiyan ears.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU JERKS DOING TO MY LITTLE BRO?" Edward's voice screams as I feel the ground begin to shake. Suddenly, numerous small hands sprouted from the ground and dragged everyone that had been near me several feet back.

"Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist here, I'm giving a Military order for you all to stay the hell away from my brother Alphonse Elric" he states as he holds out an empty hand. I gasped as I realized what that meant.

"Uh, brother-"

"Not now Al, I'm busy here; I'll say it again, back off or I'll be placing you all under military arrest, I'm a State Alchemist!" he says, rudely interrupting me without a second thought as he keeps holding out his watch he still hadn't realized was gone.

"You're a state alchemist, what happened to your watch, did it turn invisible?" a bystander says sarcastically.

"What are you babbling about?" Edward says angrily.

"Brother" I continue, hoping he'd listen this time.

"WHAT AL! WHAT IS IT?" she shrieks as he whips his head toward me like a slingshot.

"Your watch is gone" I state simply as I point to his palm, where nothing was being held.

"(Deep gasp) MY WATCH, WHERES MY WATCH!" he screams with panic. After searching all his pockets, he screamed again, now certain it was really misplaced.

"What could have happened to it, where could it have…-" he begins, suddenly stopping mid-sentence, a growl and snarling frown forming on his face as he gritted his teeth.

"Paninya…IT WAS PANINYA, I KNOW IT, THAT LITTLE BITCH!" he bellows angrily.

"Paninya, who's that?" I ask with confusion as Envy and Winry rush to me.

"Wow, just arrived and you already had a run in with our local pickpocket; not surprising, she likes to target tourists, they're usually easy suckers in her opinion" the man with the automail eye comments.

"I thought I sensed someone behind me; well she bit off more than she can chew this time, I'm going after her, where can I find that thief!" Ed asks angrily.

"Hmmmm, lets see, where is she again?" the automail eye man starts.

"I know what might jog my memory" the older man standing with him adds. Immediately they pulled out wrenches and began to gush at me.

"If you'll just let us have a closer look at your little brother's automail sir, we'll gladly tell you" they say as the get closer to me. Just before they could grab me though, Envy came up and grabbed each of them around the throats with his powerful arms in a headlock, which looked rather silly considering his elderly disguise.

"How about this instead, you tell us where this Paninya girl hangs, or I give you two gentlemen trips to the hospital, what do you say to that?" the homunculus asks sarcastically. Immediately the two men gulped and wheezed that they would cooperate. The moment after he let go of their necks, they pointed toward the mountains, and said that she'd likely be around the automail shop run by a man named Dominic LeCoulte. We promptly headed that way so we could recover my brother's watch.

**Edward Elric**

"Come on Winry, pick up the pace, its not that hard, hell, even Envy here can keep up" I laugh as I skip across the trail, amazed at how immune I was to everything, including temperature extremes. Man, other versions of me probably have, or currently are suffering during their own versions of this journey.

"(Pant, Pant) That's cause none of you guys are human, either that or you're just an animated suit of armor" Winry says with irritation.

"Well I can always carry you" I suggest with a smile as I hold my arms out.

"Oh no, I don't want people to get that idea about us everywhere we go just yet!" she screams with a blush.

"I'd carry you Winry, but my armor gets very hot in direct sunlight, I might burn you by accident, sorry" Al says with an apologetic tone.

"Its ok Al, thanks for at least letting me know you'd be willing to" she says with a sigh.

"What I don't get is why you don't just fly up and use your super acute vision to spot her from the sky" Envy remarks with annoyance in his voice.

"Security risk, you know that" I reply curtly.

"How? We're deep in the mountains, all alone for miles, except for the thief we're tracking and the engineer and his family they told us about" Envy argues.

"It only takes one witness and a slip-up, then the word can spread like wildfire, ever think about that smartass!" I yell with sarcasm.

"Then why not just use your…Gee sensing or whatever it is you call it?" he replies with irritation. I was about to argue with him more, until I felt myself get a kick in the head as I remembered my most developed sense I'd acquired through my training.

"My Ki sense, OF COURSE! How could I have forgotten about that for even a moment, its always on" I yell as I slap my forehead.

"Are you sure that will work?" Winry comments, causing my eye to twitch.

"Winry, you know damn well this sense has far more acuity and reach than any of my other ones, and its actually inherent in most all sentient beings, its unlocked with special training. With this, I can feel the essence of every living creature on the planet without even trying, and if I really focus, I can even sense life energy in other star systems from down here if there's any out there. The point is, all I have to do is focus and I can pinpoint any person's exact location unless they know how to suppress their Ki" I reply, feeling tired of having to explain the concept to my girlfriend yet again.

"Well soooooorry, but its kinda hard to understand something you've never felt with your own body" she huffs.

"Alright, gimme some quiet please, I gotta focus" I say as I close my eyes and extend my Ki detection field, its reach blanketing across the land instantly as my perception and range expands for miles. Moments later, I saw the Ki image outline of a girl with no legs, and she was extremely close by. Focusing more, my sense scanned the land she was standing on, and the surrounding area came into view, revealing that she was standing…

"There, some one is just across the ravine at that bridge!" I shout as I open my eyes and point down across the canyon, causing the others to follow my finger. Indeed, just as I'd seen with my Ki field, the girl was right there on the bridge. Focusing my eyes, I saw a reflection of sunlight from her palm, then a watch came into view, a silver watch…MY WATCH!

"HA HA, I GOT YOU NOWWWW!" I scream loudly, causing the area to shake for a moment. Standing completely still, I quickly summoned forth my new alchemic skills, causing a huge column of water from the river below to rise up and turn into a giant ice hand, which immediately headed straight for her.

"Whoa…" Al drones as he watches the spectacle, clearly in awe of my new skills.

"She's as good as caught" I say confidently as I cross my arms and wait for the frozen palm to trap her.

However, instead of staying put, she leapt straight up, at least 30 feet, and easily evaded the hand as it crashed into the ground she'd been standing on moments before.

"WHAT?" I shout with disbelief. Just before I got into a cursing fit, I remembered the details about Paninya; both her legs were high quality automail with weapon attachments, carbon blade in the right leg, and a 1.5 inch carbine cannon in the left, I'd have to make sure and show her up if she tried to use them. Moments after landing, she began to run across the bridge.

"She's getting away!" Al shouts.

"Oh no she isn't, not with my watch!" I shout as I begin running, a series of columns forming with each footstep the moment my leg swung off the edge of the pathway we'd been following. As the columns of earth carried us toward my target, she finished crossing the bridge and began to flee at full speed, making huge leaps frequently. Once reaching the passage she'd entered, I smiled as I created a 100 foot tall wall of stone, smooth as a marble counter-top to halt her retreat.

"I'd like my watch back" I say as I approach her, blue discharges of alchemic energy surging around my body from using my remote transmutation power.

"That was awesome, how'd you do that mister?" the girl asks with excitement.

"I'm an alchemist, want more!" I ask as I cause the ground all around me to form into stone hands, sending each one to grab at her.

Effortlessly, she dodged them all, weaving and flipping around their grasp like it was a game.

"Wow, so cool!" she says as she does a backflip to evade the last one. Growling, I kept pursuing her, nodding for Al to circle around and be ready.

"Quit moving around!" I snap, hoping she'd fall for my act.

"Whats the matter, can't catch a little girl?" she taunts, causing me to almost forget the need to hide my abilities and try to capture her with skills that weren't readily questioned. I quickly regained my cool and slowly followed her, making sure I didn't use my superspeed by accident. As she turned the corner, Al had the trap ready.

"I've been waiting for you" he says as he crosses his hands, activating the transmutation circle he'd drawn. In moments, a large cage was formed around her from the earth below.

"Nicely done Al" Winry comments as we close in on the girl.

"Now, why don't you hand it over? My watch-"

The next instant, she swung her right leg, and cut through the bars of the stone cage with ease.

"Watch out, she's got a 1.5 Inch Carbine cannon in her left leg!" I shout, causing Winry and Al to gasp.

"A cannon in her leg?" Winry drools as she stares as Paninya's carbon blade leg.

"Hold on, how could you possibly know that if this is the first time we've ever met?" Paninya exclaims as she leaps up onto the remains of the cage and aims her left leg at Alphonse.

"Al, watch out!" I shout, hoping he'd react fast enough that I didn't have to use my powers to save him.

"Gotcha!" Envy shouts as he leaps up from under the ground in the cage to grab at Paninya, his black uniform covered in dirt. However he just barely missed, and she began to run down the canyon away from us once more. Damn it, that backup plan was supposed to work.

"Come back here girl, that kid needs his watch so he can access his bank funds, otherwise we can't go to Dublith on the next train out!" Envy snaps as he follows her.

"Can you stop calling me a kid!" I shout as I follow the two.

"Brother, wait" Al shouts as he follows me, Winry quickly snapped out of it and began to follow us too. After a few thousand feet, I saw that the pathway we were following was about to fork into 4 different directions, and each of those forked off too. Knowing I'd have to potentially expose myself if I allowed her to get into this maze, I decided I'd just block off all the new exit routes she'd planned to use. Using my remote alchemy once again, giant walls with millions of needle sized spines jutting out rose from the ground at the entrances, making sure she'd be unable to try and kick-jump her way past us. Gasping, the girl realized her alternate escape route had been cut off and whipped around, zipping right past us through an opening Winry had left in our formation. Once again, we began to near Dominic's house, this time coming from the opposite direction we'd arrived from as Paninya attempted to outrun us.

"Stop running right now, you're only making it worse for yourself!" I shout as we begin to lose ground in our pursuit; damn I hated having to hold back and appear human.

"No way, why don't we see if you saps can catch me!" she counters as she keeps going.

"Ed, make a catapult" Envy snarls.

"What, why?" I argue, not getting at his logic.

"To launch me, she's too fast for me to chase after without losing my illusion of normalcy, but she probably won't question a catapult, that can be done with well trained athletes, so do it and shoot me just ahead of her so I can grab the little wench" Envy explains with a smirk.

"Oh I get it, yeah, that's a good plan" I reply as I smirk back and form the catapult from stone. Jumping onto the palm of the hand shaped scope, I released the tension spring and Envy shot straight over Paninya, who realized too late what we'd been plotting, allowing Envy to land right before her and grab her by the arms.

"HA! I got you now you selfish pissant!" Envy laughs as he gets up in her face.

"EW! Let go of me you smelly old man!" she screams as she struggles against his grip.

"Its no use, I'm stronger than 10 men put together" Envy says confidently. I smiled, impressed at the ingenuity of my "nephew". However, suddenly Paninya began to chuckle humorously.

"That still only makes you a man" she says with a wicked grin as she raises her left leg right at his head, causing us all to gasp in shock.

"Wait, Paninya, DON'T!" I scream, hoping she'd listen to reason.

I was rewarded with the sound of her cannon sounding off right through Envy's skull, splattering everything within 10 feet with copious levels of blood, his grip on her arms going limp as he "dies", allowing her to do a backflip away from our fallen friend.

"YOU MONSTER, HOW COULD YOU KILL AN INNOCENT OLD MAN!" Al screams indignantly, while Winry watched with shock, her horror of course being real as she didn't seem to remember how Homunculi can regenerate.

"Old man huh, moving the way he did?" she replies sarcastically. Moments later, Envy's head began to discharge with red alchemic energy, the bone and tissue reforming rapidly.

"(Groan) You bitch, that really hurt!" Envy screams as he reforms his elderly disguise.

"Old man my ass, he's some kind of gross, ugly ass monster!" Paninya yells as she holds her right leg up, her blade at the ready.

"Ugly? UGLY!" Envy bellows, as he begins to shift back to his default human form with the mane of spine like dreadlocks, causing Paninya to gasp.

"That's it! I'm through hiding what I' am, you're too annoying and I've had it!" Envy roars as begins to change. In a matter of moments, his true form exploded forth in a surge of flesh as he became the grotesque lizard like beast once again. Roaring loudly, Paninya became frozen with horror as the faces sprouted from all over his skin.

"So you think of me as an ugly monster do you? Well take a good look, you got just what you asked for tiny!" Envy's booming, echoing voice shouts as he stares down the now tiny Paninya. Quickly snapping out of her paralyzing terror, Paninya raised her left leg and aimed the cannon at Envy's head again.

However, using his large extendable tongue, Envy shot it out like a Chameleon's and struck Paninya on the leg she was using to balance herself, causing the cannon to swerve in an arc as the direction of her body was spun around 180 degrees. Losing her stable stance, the cannon accidentally fired as she stumbled to keep her balance, the recoil from the blast knocking her on her ass due to the lack of sure footing she needed when shooting it. Just as the cannon fired, I realized its trajectory.

IT WAS HEADED STRAIGHT FOR WINRY!

"Winry, NOOOOOOO!" I scream as the world slows down, my Saiyan senses and reaction time kicking in instinctively to save the woman I loved. Moving with inhuman speed, I came between her and the explosive shell. To my superhuman perception, it was like the speed of the carbine shell was the super slow-motion replay of a highly advanced image converter device, and I was a photon, appearing in its path with yards to spare. Reaching my right hand out, I grabbed the projectile with ease, the sound of the object's suddenly deceleration against my hand causing a thunderous smack.

**Paninya**

After the cannon discharged right toward the girl, I tried to scream, but found it was caught in my throat. When I finally found I was able to, I saw an even more disturbing sight and once again could not make a sound. There, standing infront of the girl with his hand outstretched, he held the shell from my cannon, he had caught it in mid-flight!

"No way…that stuff with alchemy was one thing, but…that's just impossible" I say weakly, unable to move my legs I was in such shock. That soon didn't matter as one of the giant hands of the talking lizard monster slammed down, pinning me to the ground with my head sticking out between the space of its thumb and index finger.

"Now you'll stay down" it says with a low growl, the head lowering down to my level as it said it. Then, using its huge tongue, it somehow made it thinner, then snaked its way into my pant pocket and fished out the watch I'd taken from the blonde boy.

"Hey Fullmetal, catch" the creature says as he flicks his tongue, tossing the watch right into the boy's open left hand.

"Thanks Envy, but did you have to use your tongue?" he asks as he shakes off some saliva.

"Hey, it was the best I could think of on such short notice, I didn't exactly anticipate having to use this hulking form today" the creature they called Envy replies with annoyance.

"Alright, fair enough, so what should we do with her?" the short blonde kid asks as he walks toward me, standing over me…still holding the undetonated shell!

"AAAAHHHH! Dude, that's live ammunition, it could blow!" I explain as I scream bloody murder, the damn thing was less than 2 feet from my face!

"Relax, I transmuted the powder into harmless mineral compounds like those in the soil" he retorts as he holds the shell up to my face and shakes it, causing a rustling sound to come from inside.

"Its full of rocks, like your head" the boy continues as he begins to clench the hand containing the shell into a fist, slowly crushing the metal like a piece of aluminum foil! After reducing it to the size of a golf ball, he flipped his palm to the side and dropped it casually, as if the feat he'd just accomplished was easy.

"Alright, now back to what we should do to her; you think we should call the military on her?" the blonde boy says as he rubs his chin. I felt nervous now, would I really be arrested?

"Awww, we're gonna let her off that easy Edward?" the green monster asks with disappointment, as though hoping for more.

"Well, what did you have in mind Envy?" Edward continues, looking up at the creature as he waited on an answer.

"Well, I have a few; one, we could rough her up, just a little" Envy says with anticipation.

"I wouldn't be opposed to that, a few blows to the head might get her thinking in the right direction" Edward replies as he cracks his knuckles, causing Envy to laugh a little.

"Two, we slowly rip her legs off and destroy them, making sure she feels every bit of pain as the artificial nerves are torn from their housing units" Envy continues, and I swore I could feel a rock drop into my stomach as I saw the gleam in the monster's eye.

"No, that's overkill, she just stole my watch Envy, its not like she-"

"Or three, we could transmute her into an "ingredient" for me" the beast interrupts with a wicked laugh. I didn't know what that meant really, but I had a gut feeling it was the worst thing that could be done to me, and so I gulped loudly.

"That had better be a joke Envy! You know that's completely out of the question, so if you're relapsing, remember what I said to you back at Eastern Command…" Edward screams as he holds up a finger, his tone filled with anger and a subtle but intense warning.

"I'm sorry! Remember, there are a lot of voices in my head, I sometimes think they attempt to try and have me make huge fuck-ups so I can get my comeuppance or something" Envy sighs, his tone having changed to a sorrowful, regretful one.

"Ok, good to know you're not reverting back into a real monster, but we're gonna be getting you some training to resist that so you don't pose such a risk to innocent people; now as for you Paninya, his first idea I do agree with, so don't bother trying to resist, it will only make your punishment more painful" Edward says as he holds up his right fist and prepares to strike me.

"(Gun cocks) HEY YOU BRATS, WHATS THE BIG IDEA WITH…(Gasp) MONSTER!" Dominic shouts, having burst from the door with his shotgun.

"WAIT! I'm not really a monster" Envy shouts, his form suddenly shrinking back to the teenage like visage except for the arm he was using to restrain me.

"Mr. Dominic, please, we're not trying to do anything wrong; Paninya here stole my friend Edward's Silver Watch, his proof of being a State Alchemist, we had to get it back, and she had an accident and almost shot me with her leg cannon" the girl says defensively.

"Paninya, please tell me this isn't true, tell me you didn't try to steal from a State Alchemist" Dominic groans as he lowers his gun.

"Its true, I did; but the blonde shrimp has a secret, do you know what he did? He like, moved instantly from yards away, and blocked the path of my misfired shell, by catching it! Then he crumpled the damn thing like a newspaper, WITH HIS BARE HAND!" I shout, causing Dominic to sigh.

"Ok, clearly something very strange is going on here, and quite obviously highly secretive" Dominic says as he turns his back to us and starts to head back inside. Rotating just his head, he added, "Come on inside and we can discuss things in a civil manner"

Instantly, the hand around me shrank back into Envy, and he rushed inside, the rest of us quickly followed, I was eager to know exactly what was going on.


	19. Chapter 19 Reversed Roles

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 19: Reversed Roles**

**Edward Elric**

After having a serious discussion with Dominic and his family about our mission, and helping deliver the baby like in the anime, we finally got Winry set up with Mr. Garfiel in town. Now she had the automail job she'd always dreamed of. Now, after having spent the last 2 days in Rush Valley, and another half day on the train again, Envy, Alphonse and me were finally in Dublith.

"So this is Dublith eh, a little different than I imagined" Envy comments as we depart the train, once more in his old man disguise.

"How so?" Alphonse asks with curiosity.

"Well I've heard some other things about this town aside from the fact that its where I think my old friend is, they say that a group of criminal freaks that holes up here, got weird powers, and that their leader is the weirdest of all" Envy explains as we reach the street and hail a cab.

"So you thought that Dublith would be a dark, dangerous, depressing crime slum?" I ask as I turn my head to look out the window in the direction of Central, where I could sense Father's immense presence without effort.

"Pretty much, yeah, I was surprised when nobody attempted to mug us on the way off the train, its much more pleasant than I'd anticipated" Envy continues.

"If things were that bad, we probably wouldn't have lasted long while away from teacher during our training" Al says with a laugh, causing me to smile as well. Like Resembool, Dublith was rather tame and safe, no major events ever occurred here in our past.

Once the cab reached the street we wanted, we climbed out of the car, and the driver peeled out in a desperate rush to get away from this place, and who could blame him? Even with my new found invulnerability and other myriad of superpowers, there was still something scary about my first teacher.

Suddenly, I had a realization; I'd learned stuff people of our world had never even considered, stuff that Truth hadn't divulged to anyone. I was no longer a former student. Thanks to my training, now I was the master. Just as I came to that conclusion, suddenly most of my fear vanished. Now all I was worried about, was her being angry with me, for even with my new training, I had still committed the taboo with my brother all those years ago, like she had, and we'd been warned that it was something that would haunt us.

"(Gulp) Well, here we go" Alphonse says as we begin to walk toward the door. Knocking on it, thudding footsteps began to echo from within, and Sig came to the door with a bloody knife.

"Uh…hey Sig, long time no see" Al says nervous, as I just stand there quietly, wondering how he'd react to seeing me short again.

"Its good to see you boys again after all these years, I was beginning to worry you might never return" Sig says as he pats my head, ruffling my hair.

"Excuse me, I've been by here more recently than that haven't I?" I snap, amazed that he acted as if my appearance 4 weeks ago was just a dream or something.

"No, its been a long time, you must have it confused with another visit, the last visitor we had was that tall blonde monster man who claimed he was you, then went on to devastate Central Command" Sig replies casually. My jaw dropped at hearing his explanation.

"I-Is teacher here? We wanted to see her, but if she's still not feeling well then we can come back another time" Al says nervously, literally shaking with fear.

"Oh please, she's only human, how dangerous could she-AAAHHH!" Envy begins, abruptly screaming as he is cut short by a kick to the fact that sent him sprawling out to the street where he crashed, leaving an imprint due to his extreme mass. HA! How ironic, he took the hit I would have gotten if things had followed the original path that my anime did.

"(Gasp) Uh…teacher, please, you see, we…-" Al stutters as he tries to speak, all but paralyzed with fear. Oh poor Al, it's a shame he wasn't invulnerable like me.

"Al? Look at you, you've gotten so big" she says cheerfully as she puts out a hand. I knew what was coming next, so I quickly relocated to the roof and swung my legs off the edge. Using my alchemy to synthesize a bucket of fresh, hot, hulless popcorn from a large quantity of atmospheric gases above me, I got comfy and prepared to watch Al take the schmuck bait hard. I knew it was rather cruel, but I just had to let this go as planned, it was hilarious seeing my brother be so naïve, even knowing how my former teacher acts.

"(Sigh) Teacher, its really good to see-WHOAAAAA!" Al screams as he is flipped on his back with a thud, groaning dramatically from the blow; what a baby, he doesn't even feel pain as a soul bonded to a suit of armor, I laughed as I grabbed another handful of the delicious airy treat and chomped on it.

"Your skills are rusty" she comments as she turns her back to him.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAA! Funny every-single-damn time!" I guffaw as I hold my stomach, the in-person rendition was even better than the version from the anime. Hearing my voice, she turned her head up and her eyes widened with shock.

"Hey Izumi, long time no see" I reply with a laugh as I toss the bucket away, a stone fist sprouting from the ground and gently catching it before I even land, the hand then gave it back to me and promptly fell apart once its work was done.

"How did you do that?" she stammers as she points.

"What, the popcorn? You can have some if you want" I ask as I hold it out to her.

"No no no! The hand, the roof, you just…what's going on?" she shouts as she looks down at me with shock.

"Well, you see, apparently you forgot or something, cause I've been-"

"HEY LADY!" Envy shouts as, causing us both to stop and turn our attention to him. The fool had begun to revert back to his default teen like form.

"You're out of line bitch, do you know who I' am? I'm the great and powerful homunculus, Envy the Jealous! Now what possessed you to just hit me you stupid whor-"

With a SMACK! Izumi kicked in him the face again, silencing, and sending him to the ground once more.

"Annoying thing; now, you were saying Edward?" Izumi continues, still giving me the shocked look. I couldn't believe she thought that that incident in Central was really the work of another creature. Well, I was sure to set her straight.

"Izumi, maybe this will help explain" I say as I begin to undo the alchemic formula's that had changed my appearance, returning me back to my new, true appearance. As my body grew, my tail re-sprouted, and I sighed. The whole way, Izumi's face contorted with terror.

"Alright, now do you understand?" I ask, hopeful that she'd put two and two together. For a whole minute, she was completely silent, Curtis staring in shock too.

Then, she suddenly screamed, "THE MONSTER!"

Clapping her hands, she slammed the ground and a fist began to fly toward my face.

"WHOA! Izumi, what the hell? Stop this!" I shout, she acted like I really was the bad guy.

"No, you've gotten poor Edward again, where have you taken my student!" she bellows as she makes a giant rampart blaster crossbow and fires it.

"WHOA! Izumi, ITS ME!" I scream as I hold out the watch. She stopped for a moment, but then frowned.

"You could have taken that from Edward, how do I know you're not lying?" she continues, raising an eyebrow. Suddenly, Envy came up and grinned as he stood by her.

"Don't hit me just yet, I'm gonna prove that's Ed" he says with a grin. Clearing his throat, Envy began to laugh.

"He-Hey Tiny! I'm surprised your teacher could see you earlier when you were such a little, shrimpy, microscopic, miniscule, wimpy, short, small, downsized, puny, insignificant bug of a man, how ever did she see you at that height you runt?" Envy taunts, setting me off something fierce, I knew I'd have fire in my eyes if this were like my anime.

"(Scream) NOBODY CALLS ME LITTLE!" I roar as I leap at Envy and rip his skull off his neck. After spurting blood all over me, the head turned to dust, and a new one began to grow.

"(Groan) You over-sensitive ass, I just wanted to get you mad the way only the real Ed could, to prove to Izumi that you're the real deal, you didn't have to bite my fucking head off!" Envy says bitterly as his head reforms.

"Ok, I'm sorry about that, I went overboard a little because of a few things, But in case you've forgotten, you do deserve a little abuse considering how horrid you've acted in the past homunculus" I reply angrily.

"Edward…so it is you, but…the army, you told King Bradley-"

"A big fat lie to get him and the other bad guys off my back, it was all an act that I wanted them to believe, I just didn't think you'd be dumb enough to fall for it teacher" I laugh as I interrupt her, realizing how badly she'd been suckered.

"So…wait, that would mean that the monster that attacked Central, that was you, so you…" she continues, unable to say it.

"Yeah, I won't deny it, I killed all the soldiers, I'm not innocent anymore. But I didn't mean to, I'll explain everything as soon as we clean up this mess" I say as I point around to the various destroyed parts in the area.

"Oh…yeah, I suppose we do need to get to work, I'll start with the-"

"Don't bother, I got it covered" I say as I cut her off and crack my knuckles, putting my hands at my waist. Within moments, alchemic energy bolts crackled across all the damaged places and things reformed. Minutes later, after careful double checking, everything that had been broken or even scratched, was all repaired. Izumi and Sig's mouths had promptly dropped at this display.

"Edward…what was that?" Izumi asks hoarsely.

"Remote mentally activated Alchemy" I smirk as I rub one of my hands on my coat.

"That's not even possible, you have to at least be in close contact to the matter you want to manipulate to use alchemy on it" she replies with disbelief.

"Oh teacher, you should know by now-" I begin as I hold my hand out, a small, vase size vortex forming as I manipulate the contents of the atmosphere, then turn them into a real vase, with my usual Gothic designs.

"-There is no such thing as impossible" I grin as I hand it to her.

"Lets go inside, I don't need to be seen like this by the general public" I say as I rush into her home. They promptly followed me, with Envy laughing.

"Kid, I Like your style, very flamboyant!" he shouts.

**Izumi Curtis**

After an entire hour, Edward had told his story, including the parts about trying to revive his mother, his out of universe trip, and what the big bads of our world had planned. All I could do was gape in shock; he'd seen a completely different and peaceful world, yet there were beings even more powerful than this "Father" beneath Central, and now Edward was one of them. I could only think of one phrase to sufficiently describe Edward's new status.

The student had become the master indeed.

"Edward…do they…have alchemy over there?" I ask, remembering him mentioning some folks who had come back from the dead.

"It works over there, I used it, but most folks don't seem to know it exists, or are at least unable to figure it out, why do you ask?" Edward replies with a curious smile.

"Because, well…you said that people came back from the dead over there, so I thought maybe…they'd perfected human transmutation or something and that…you could take me there so I could get my child back at last" I say as I remember that fateful day he was taken from us.

"No, they don't use that, they have something far more powerful, real magic" Edward continues, frowning as he spoke of the human transmutation, but smiling as he got to the magic part.

"Magic? HA! Isn't that a bunch of hooey?" Envy cackles.

"Hey, you've seen the mastery of matter and energy that my training with Psyagon gave me" Edward retorts as a ball of liquid forms in his hand, then solidifies into a perfectly cut and polished diamond.

"That was all made from the gases of the atmosphere around us" he says as he holds it out for us to see.

"But that violates the law of natural providence; matter with certain properties can only be transmuted into other forms with similar-"

"Don't you get it! The real truth is, there is no law of natural providence. All that matter is, is condensed, solidified energy, nothing more. That's why the sun emits so much power, its fusion of hydrogen to make helium gives off excess energy that's lost from the conversion of one element to another. If nature can do it, nothing saying we can't, you just need to know how to manipulate matter on that kind of scale, complete and total deconstruction down to subatomic particles, back to pure energy" Ed says as the diamond changes into a tiny orb of yellow light and flies into his chest. Then with a burst of alchemic discharge, he shrank back to his small size from before his life changing experience.

"So this magic, are you saying it can really bring the dead back?" I continue, still eager to know a straight answer.

"Yeah, it sure can, hell some folks I met were revived by this magic more than twice. Just in general, it was really something to meet them, I mean, one guy named Krillin, he invented this technique" Edward says as he holds his palm up like he was a waiter about to carry a big tray. Suddenly, a giant yellow spinning disk of energy formed, and I could see razor shaped edges.

"Whoa, what is that?" Envy asks with about as much awe as I was feeling.

"The Kienzan, or Destructo Disk. Its pure Ki energy, sharpened down to a sub-atomically thin edge, it can cut through just about any solid matter like a hot knife through butter, and even most energies too. Only the most dense, durable, and energy saturated beings or materials can take one of these head on and not be eviscerated; this one I hold here could cut through a million trees in under an hour, and still keep going" Edward explains with a chuckle.

"Well then put that thing away, I don't want my house sliced and diced, much less me or Sig!" I scream as I realize how dangerous such a technique could be.

"Yeah sure, alright then, so are we cool teacher? You're not gonna expel us are you?" Edward asks with a hopeful tone as the disk vanishes.

"How could I expel you? I was considering giving you that test if all this hadn't happened, but now…you're the one with stuff to teach me" I begin as I stand up, Edward's face contorting with confusion as I knelt to one knee in respect.

"Please, I wish to learn whatever you can teach a mere mortal like me" I ask humbly, causing Sig to laugh.

"Wow, I never would have imagined that my wife would be bowing and asking one of the brats she didn't even want to take on as a pupil to teach her lessons of any kind one day. But she's right Edward, you have unfathomable levels of knowledge to teach, I'd like you to teach my wife too if possible" he says as he kneels too.

"We'll discuss it later, right now, there's something even more important we have to do" Edward says as he raises a hand dramatically. Without warning, a loud growling groan filled the room.

"We need to make dinner, and lots of it, I'm starving" he laughs as he rubs the back of his head and chuckles sheepishly. We all promptly fell over from the sheer absurdity of it; one moment he was dead serious, the next he's desperate to be fed.

"(Chuckle) Ok, come on, we'll get started on the meal then" I say as we head for the kitchen.

**Bido**

From the side of the wall, I heard everything about the soul bonding. I smiled, knowing he'd be pleased. "So the rumors are true, he's able to transmute human souls" I chuckle as I crawl off back to my friend and leader, eager to tell him the good news.

_The Next Day_

**Alphonse Elric**

As I swept the street outside the shop, I thought about how much my brother had changed. I admired my brother and his new character, he was a lot more cheerful most of the time, he still had that snappy demeanor often, but he was much better than he used to be. Still, he had much to improve on, and hopefully as our journey continued, he'd keep getting better.

Suddenly, a crumpled piece of paper was tossed right at my feet. Looking around for the one who threw it, I failed to find them, so I bent down and opened it up. As I saw the words, I became suspicious, and decided to go to this place the paper listed. After walking for a good 10 minutes into the bad part of town, I saw a group of people gathered outside the entrance to the location written on the paper I held.

"There you are, about time" a man with slicked back, spiky black hair says as he stands with the others. I also noticed he had a katana on his person. Beside him was a blonde girl with tattoos. Also among them was a bald guy with a tattered cloak.

"We know your secret, meet us at the Devil's Nest if you wanna talk. I'm guessing you're the people that wrote this note?" I reply as I hold it out for them to see.

"That's right, and we know a lot about you" the spiky black haired man says with a smile.

"Well that's good, cause there's a lot about me that I don't know" I reply as I turn my head slightly.

"Then I'm the guy you wanna talk to, why don't you come with us?" he replies.

"But my teacher always said I'm not supposed to go with strangers" I continue, causing him to show disbelief.

"How old are you?" he asks with an embarrassed face.

"14" I state.

"Well come on then, I'd say 14 is old enough to think for yourself kid. You gotta act like an adult and start taking some risks" he says as he turns his back to me and turns his finger around above his head, as if he just expected me to listen to him like he had some kind of authority. I then figured now would be time for some acting to make him drop his guard.

"You think so, I should think for myself?" I shout with faux interest in my tone.

"Yes, and you can start by coming with-UGH!" he laughs as he turns to reply, where he promptly received a kick to the face that sent him sprawling to the dirt.

"So I thought it over for myself, and I decided that I should just make you tell me what I wanna know" I continue, standing tall and ready to fight them.

"So, you wanna do this by force?" he remarks as he leaps to his feet and unsheathes his katana. Almost faster than he could respond, I struck him with an open palm to the face, sending blood and saliva spurting out as tissues tore and broke. But at the same time, his sword managed to strike up into my helmet and flip it off. Without warning, the girl landed on my shoulders.

"Sorry to drop in" she says smoothly, then flips and twists into my armor with one fluid motion.

"WHAAAAAAA! YOU'RE INSIDE ME!" I scream as I freak out.

"Hey, be a good boy and hold still!" she yells as I feel her arms go into my arm sockets inside my armor.

"So whats it like having someone control you from inside?" the girl asks as she holds her limbs stiff in my socket areas.

"You can't stop me from moving, and you're not strong enough to hold this up forever!" I groan as I resist her control.

"You're right, but, all I'm trying to do is slow you down a little" she says mischievously.

"For my turn" the deep voice of a big man says from behind me. As I tried to ram my arm into him, he caught it, then pushed me down to the ground and sat on my back to immobilize me as he held my body in an arm hold maneuver.

"You alright in there?" the man asks the girl.

"Oh I'm wonderful" she spits sarcastically.

"You're making this way too hard kid" the black haired man says as he drops my head down a few feet away from me.

"You people aren't human are you?" I ask as I continue to struggle against the two holding me still.

"Good guess, they're chimeras, and they happen to work for me" a new voice says, picking up my head and holding it out as he stands there smirking. The man had spiky black hair that stood straight up, he wore slick black shades with a black outfit, composed of a vest with fur around the neck, a dark brown undershirt, wristbands, tight leather pants, and leather boots. Then, they forced me inside the Devil's Nest.


	20. Chapter 20 The Most Valuable Thing

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 20: The Most Valuable Thing**

**Alphonse Elric**

After being dragged in, the leader peered down inside me.

"(Gasp) Cool, you're actually hollow" he states as he puts my head back on.

"The names-" he begins

"Greed, and you wanna be my friend right?" I say as I finish his sentence, causing him to laugh.

"Now how did you know I was about to say that? Its like you've seen the future or read my mind! Do you have other hidden talents?" he laughs as he hides his shock.

"No, but my brother might; he warned me I might be kidnapped at some point during our journey, likely in Dublith, by a man named Greed, who would try and get the secret to soul-bonding out of me for immortality, and if you can't get the information from me, you'll try to get it from him" I explain, causing his jaw to drop.

"How much do you know about me kid? I'm beginning to get suspicious" Greed says with a chuckle.

"Everything, You're a homunculus created by Father, almost 200 years ago near the end of the 1700s. Greed the Avaricious, you want everything you can think of; money and women, power and sex, status, glory, you demand the finer things, and one of the biggest things on your list, you crave eternal life. Am I right?" I say succinctly, causing the mouths of all present to hang open like rusty hinges, Greed's included.

"How the hell could your brother know all that?" Greed asks angrily.

"You'll find out soon enough when he arrives with an old friend of yours" I reply, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"An old friend? Well this oughta be interesting, I love meeting old friends, so you just sit tight" he laughs with glee.

**Edward Elric**

After having explained to Izumi and Sig that we wouldn't have time for any training from me just yet, I went outside to check on Al. Envy decided he'd join me, he was getting bored of just sitting in there talking. Couldn't blame him, I liked action too, Saiyans just began to boil over with cabin fever after a short period, the species was simply unable to sit still for long when they were bored. As we reached the entrance to the meat shop, I saw his broom was just sitting there on the sidewalk.

"Hey bro, where are ya?" I shout as I look around, unable to find any clues to his location. Leaping onto the roof with his usual old man disguise, Envy began to scan the area too.

"He's not in the surrounding area Fullmetal, not a trace" Envy shouts.

"I don't get it, this is totally unlike him, where could my Buns of Steel brother have gone?" I sigh as I put the broom away, knowing full well Izumi would get dragged into this mess if I left it out like I had in the anime.

"I'd be happy to tell you where you could find him" the sneaky and unmistakable voice of Bido the lizard chimera says from the shadows of an alleyway. Envy jumped down from the roof and landed beside me, both of us staring at him angrily.

"But first you tell me what his secret is" Bido continues from the shadows as he looks at us. Looking at each other for a moment, Envy and I turned our attention to the little weasely reptile man and slowly approached him with a twisted grin on our respective faces.

**Alphonse Elric**

As the girl continued to restrain me from within, I shouted, "Brother, I'm sure you can hear me if you concentrate, just follow my voice!"

"Oh please, there is no way he could hear you down here, he'd have to have superhuman senses for that" Greed laughs.

Suddenly, the door was kicked open, my brother holding the lizard man's body by the scruff of his neck effortlessly. Then he tossed him to the floor roughly.

"Brother!" I shout happily, glad that he was finally here to rescue me as he'd promised he'd do if I was ever abducted.

"Honestly Al, I warned you all about these guys, even how crafty they were, and yet you still managed to get kidnapped by them? (Groan) It just doesn't pay to explain things to little brothers sometimes" he sighs as he walks over, twisting his arm flamboyantly as he makes his big red coat twirl like a cape as he removes it, tossing it to the ground, revealing his black outfit underneath.

"Whoa…you seem tense, are you upset at us for kidnapping your little bro Fullmetal?" Greed says casually.

"Not really, he wasn't in any real danger; just dismantling him won't cause any harm, that was your plan if none of us would talk right?" Edward replies with a smirk.

"How do you know so much damn it?" Greed snarls, his cool demeanor quickly dissolving as his frustration mounted.

"Well, the main reason is a secret, but this is one of the sources" Edward smiles as he holds his arm out over the door then lowers it dramatically as Envy in his old man disguise walks through.

"You gotta be kidding me, an old geezer? How would he know anything, its not possible, he's ancient" Greed says with disbelief.

"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Oh really, I thought nothing was impossible? You used to toss that one around like it was your catchphrase" Envy laughs with his own voice, as he began to change back to his default human form. Greed began to grimace as he realized who he was talking to.

"You change your mind or something?" Envy says with a toothy grin as his head finishes reforming and his hair falls down around his neck.

"(Gasp) ENVY!" Greed stammers as he backs up a step.

"Hello there brother, long time no see" Envy laughs as he steps toward the frightened man.

"S-Stay away from me! I was serious all those years ago, I' m not going back to him, I have bigger plans than being a pawn!" Greed continues as he regains his cool.

"Who ever said I was taking you back to him?" Envy snickers as he keeps going closer.

"I see, he sent you to silence me then, right? Guess he finally decided I was too much of a loose cannon to let live" Greed says as a shiny grey coating begins to morph over the skin on his arms and hands.

"No, actually something far more different" Envy says as he extends his right hand. With a snarl, Greed suddenly began to become completely covered in the coating.

"OH NO! You're not absorbing me into yourself Envy, I don't go down like that" Greed starts as the coating begins to creep up his neck.

"Certainly not without a fight!" he continues, his voice now gaining a slight echo as the coating covers his whole head, his facial features changing as his hair vanishes and the eyes and mouth reform, with fangs coming out of the lower jaw.

"Hold on, I never said I was gonna absorb you dumbass, look more closely at my hand idiot!" Envy snaps, holding his right arm out again as he shakes the palm slightly. Suddenly Greed relaxed tremendously and shook Envy's hand, the coating covering him vanishing just like his anxiety.

"Oh wow, you're here against orders just to say hi, I wasn't sure you'd ever get my hint" Greed laughs.

"Well, took me about a century, but I did figure it out when none of the others did, not even Father" Envy says as he releases Greed's hand.

"So why are you here? You know father will have your stone if he finds out you went behind his back to see me" Greed chuckles.

"I'm already in that position, I defected too Greed" Envy sighs.

"No way! You finally came to your senses and decided to join me and my crew?" Greed says enthusiastically as he holds his hands out. In the background, I saw the girl helping the lizard man up.

"First, introductions; the girl is Martel, part snake, Dolcetto, slick hair, he's part dog, Bido is the cue ball, part lizard, Roa, he's uh…what were you made with again?" Greed remarks as he pauses, having forgotten apparently.

"Cow" the large man replies as he holds his hammer.

"Right, Cow. We've also got a Crocodile, he never said his name, doesn't talk much, but he's very grateful, does whatever I say. Croc (Snaps finger) fetch me and our guests something to drink, mild stuff for the Fullmetal Alchemist, he is just a kid, has to learn to hold his liquor before he can get the good stuff" Greed continues as he rambles.

"SHUT UP! Let me talk little brother!" Envy yells as he stomps the ground, his incredible mass making the room shudder.

"Careful! We're not exactly in a bomb shelter, this could collapse with too much stress Envy, and I'm sorry, what were you trying to say?" Greed says calmly as Croc brings a tray of wine glasses.

"I'm not interested in a drink just yet bro, and don't waste your time on Fullmetal, he hates alcoholic beverages, says he once saw his father drink them as a kid, and old man, he started rambling. Add to the fact that he used to hate him, you can see why he'd rather smash a glass of beer than take a single sip" Envy replies with a chuckle. He was right about that, my brother currently disliked booze with a passion.

"I see, so…the thing you wanted to mention bro?" Greed continues as he sips on a glass of red wine.

"I didn't come here to join you, me and Edward Elric came here to get you to join our crew" Envy states as he walks over to me and rips my chest plate open, then yanks Martel out who promptly screeched due to the rough manhandling.

"HEY, LEMME GO YA JERK!" she yells angrily as she wriggles in his grip.

"Part snake huh? You're a bit too pretty to be a real serpent" Envy says while I re-attach my hooks for the chest plate and close myself up. Then, using his free right hand, Envy turned it into a snake and made it hiss in Martel's face, causing her to whimper.

"That's right, a real snake, and this one is very venomous" Envy chuckles.

"Envy! Put her down, she didn't do anything that was that wrong, she was just following her bosses' orders" I say angrily as I get angered at his rough treatment of the girl.

"Awww, do I have to? I wasn't gonna hurt her-" Envy states as he leans in close and looks her straight in the eyes.

"-Just make her scream in terror a little" he says with a grin.

"Put her down, now!" I say firmly, causing Envy to frown.

"But…-"

"You heard my brother, you gotta start changing; that kind of behavior isn't acceptable to use on innocent victims of tyrannical authority" Edward states authoritatively as he walks up behind Envy and looms there menacingly.

"Ok" Envy sighs as he sets Martel on her feet and returns his right arm to normal.

"I'm sorry Ms. Martel, I'm trying to work on my manners, I'm still not used to acting like this, its very out of character for me" Envy says as he bows.

"Yeah ok, I accept your apology Envy; and for your information Elric brothers, I' am not a victim of tyrannical coercion, I joined up with Greed willingly after he freed me from a government lab in Central, that's where I was turned into a chimera. I want to stay with him" Martel replies bitterly.

"That's right, Martel is my girl, so you keep her hands off her bro. Also, join up, what makes you think I want to risk being caught by Father? He knows you defected, and he's got more eyes now, just like me. More importantly, why join with you losers? Minus you Envy, you're just a tiny bit lame, not a loser. Point is, why would I go anywhere under with you and your goon squad?" Greed remarks with a derisive chuckle as he removes his glasses.

Immediately, me and Edward began to bust out laughing, and fell to the floor in hysterics.

"What are you twerps laughing at!" Greed roars.

"HA HA HA! You think that Envy?…HA HA!" I manage to wheeze between laughs.

"Tell me why you're laughing, usually my brother hates being mocked!" Greed continues angrily.

"They're not mocking me moron, they're mocking you! HA HA HA!" Envy adds as he begins to chuckle at his brother too. Greed and his men promptly gave us funny looks of confusion.

"(Sighs and wipes his eyes) Oh Greed, you think that just cause Envy is one of the strongest homunculi, that means he's automatically the leader? Ever consider that there is a race of beings so much more powerful than your kind, that it makes them seem less than fleas in comparison?" Edward asks as he removes his gloves.

"What are you talking about?" Greed asks with an irritated tone of confusion.

"Just watch, and those of you with weak constitutions might wanna be prepared, this sight can make people lose control of their bodily functions" I say as I back up a few steps. They promptly began to stare at my brother.

**Edward Elric**

As I deactivated the alchemy formula rearrangements on my body, I began to get taller again. I thoroughly enjoyed the looks of horror on their faces as I saw them slowly realize who I was.

"Holy shit, it's the monster that destroyed central!" Bido screams in horror, leaping behind Greed and cowering there.

"It is him, he has the monkey tail" Martel whispers as she notices my blonde appendage.

"N-No way, what kind of chimera is he? Just being part monkey couldn't make this dude strong enough to tear down the gates to Central Command, what is he?" Dolcetto stammers as he backs up some. I chuckled as I saw Greed's mouth hanging open.

"You tricked us! You even tricked your own family, you impersonated Edward Elric so you could get to me!" Greed says as he forms the Graphene Ultimate Shield over his arms.

"Impersonate? HA! You don't seem to be getting the clue "avaricious". Here, let me spell it out for you" I laugh as I form the ground at Greed's feet into a large, diamond, raised letter stamper. Then, I sent the column with the set typeface mold into his forehead at supersonic speeds, the force of the blow making his neck snap a little as he fell over.

"Owwwww! What the hell, how did he do that?" the spiky haired homunculus snarls as he sits up. Martel seeing his forehead gasped.

"Greed?" Martel says nervously as she points to his brow.

"What, Something wrong with my face?" he asks dumbly.

"Your forehead boss, that thing Edward hit you with left an impression that spells words out, a phrase" Bido whimpers, having scrambled away the instant Greed began to fall over.

"Words, what do they say? Tell me!" he yells angrily.

"It reads…"Edward Elric is the monster" that's what's on your head" Martel says quietly as she walks over to him and reads the statement imprinted on his skin. Greed promptly gasped with worry.

"That's right, but I'm much worse than a monster if you piss me off, I tend to lose my rational mind when I get really mad these days" I respond with a chuckle as I begin to power up a little, a bright blue aura blazing all around me like a fire.

"Y-You, what the hell are you, what the fucking hell are you!" Bido shrieks with terror. Narrowing my eyes at him, I discharged a little Ki into the sockets and made both of them glow pure white with life force energy.

"I'm a Saiyan, proud and strong, and I'm the leader of this group, I hold command over Envy and all the others too" I state as I begin to slowly walk toward the tall homunculus.

"At least that would be my position if I was a selfish dirt bag, but Al, Envy, and anyone else affiliated with me aren't my subordinates, they're my friends" I say as I get closer.

"Hey, that's close enough, you gotta go through me if you wanna get any closer to Mr. Greed" Roa says stiffly as he smacks the flat end of his big hammer on his palm.

"How about I just push you aside wimpy?" I taunt as I curl up my index finger and hold it to his forehead.

"Huh? OOF!" he screams as he is sent through the wall when I flick my finger against his forehead.

"There, now then Greed, I'd like to have a little chat with you about joining up with us" I say as I make the gloves I'd tossed to the floor transmute into energy, then reformed them back on my hands, where I promptly stuck out my right palm in anticipation of a hand shake. Greed began to laugh.

"You have all that power, and yet you say they're your friends? Dude, why would you want friends when you're this strong and skilled, and also, what makes you think they'd hold any allegiance to you, you're too dangerous, if you got mad nothing could stop you" Greed says smoothing, causing me to stop mid-stride.

"What do you mean?" I ask suspiciously, wondering what he was up to.

"I know about Central all those weeks ago, you could have reduced it all to rubble with a single blow, but something held you back then. A simple fact though, apply enough of the right stress to anything, people included, super powered or not, they'll crack under the pressure. What happens if you crack and go mad with power…or rage?" Greed laughs, my eyes widening as I envisioned his statements.

"Yeah, that's the face, you'll have that if you lose control, after you've destroyed everything you hold dear, or after its been taken from you, you'll set the world on fire, I can tell, you got plenty of power to spare to do the deed, and ain't nothing that could stand up to your might. So you think it's a good idea to have people close to you, considering how often they'll be targeted once your secret is out?" Greed laughs as he points out my contorted face of horror, for he had spoken some truths.

"You know I'm right kid. That's why I have possessions, not friends" Greed says as he curls a finger, beckoning Martel to walk over to him, where he promptly wrapped an arm around her waist.

"You see, possessions are much better than friends, when they betray or hurt you, it doesn't matter, cause they're things, not people, that's the way it oughta be, no emotional attachments" Greed says with a grin as he uses his other hand to trace a finger under Martel's chin. I was about to mention something that might serve to fuel his arguments further, but then I saw a tear fall from Martel's right eye as he traced his finger across her skin. It was then I realized that she had considered him and her at least friends, and possibly hoping for more.

"Is that what you really believe Greed?" I say with a low voice, clenching my fists with anger at his callous, heartless attitude.

"Well sure, besides, I mean, who would ever be friends with a freak like me? I'm not even a real person, so who could possibly care about my life? To humans, it means nothing in their eyes, cause I'm not a real man, just a thing made from alchemy, not nature. So how could a guy like me have any real friends, who would ever stand by me through thick and thin, no matter what?" he replies with a grin, causing Martel to begin to cry. This finally got his attention, and he turned to face her, his face showing shock as he realized how hard she was sobbing.

"Martel, why are you sad?" he asks, genuinely confused by her behavior.

"(Sniff) Greed…I always considered you a friend, my best friend; I'd so anything for you, all you'd have to do is name it. So then…why don't you think of us as such?" she sniffles as the others gather around her too. All Greed could do was look at them with a baffled stare.

"Dude, I may be part dog, but that's not why I'm so loyal to you man, its cause I consider you my friend. You think I'd have hurt anyone on your word if I didn't consider you a friend?" Dolcetto adds.

"If I didn't trust your judgment and consider you a friend, I'd have smashed your head in a lot whenever I had the chance, so what do you think it means when I didn't do that unless you ask me to?" Roa says as he sets his hammer on the ground.

"Yeah, and I'm pretty cowardly, but I follow you cause I consider you a true friend Greed, you've always watched out for me" Bido says with a smile.

"Y-You really consider me a friend, all of you?" Greed asks with disbelief.

"Of course we do, why wouldn't we?" Dolcetto continues.

"You may not consider us friends, but you sure treat us like them, and that means you care whether you believe it or not, you have all the qualities of a good friend" Martel says as she pats his back.

"I…I…No, it's a trick, you just want me to give up my ambitions, to be tied down. Well I'm not gonna be that kind of sap, you can't add me to your collection, I'll make sure my other siblings learn of this; Lust, Gluttony, Pride-"

"Too late" I reply, cutting him off and causing his face to contort with confusion.

"You seem to be at a loss, ok then here's what it means; you're too late, they already joined up with us!" Envy laughs. Greed promptly growled and activated his full shield again.

"Well then, regardless, you won't trick me. I'm not joining, you'll never take me alive!" Greed shouts with the hollow echoing tone of that form as he leaps at me with his claws. I easily sidestepped the attack and snapped his tripped him on his feet.

"Well then, shall we take this outside?" I ask as I wave my hands, causing pillars to drag everyone else close to me, with all of them in contact of my body. Immediately I used Instantaneous Movement and we appeared way out in the desert a few miles from the ruins of Xerxes.

"What the fuck…where are we!" Greed snaps angrily as the teleportation completes and he jumps to his feet.

"We just traveled over 2000 miles, we're in the desert. Oh, by the way, that reminds me" I smirk as I use my alchemy to transmute a good pure oasis from the sands behind us for the others.

"Now no one will die of thirst" I remark as I keep my attention on Greed, who eyed me suspiciously.

"Why did you bother to drag me all the way out here alchemist?" he says with a raised eyebrow as he lowers the shield over his head.

"To give you one last chance to join me Greed" I say solemnly as I begin to create an entire castle with the sand beneath his feet. After several minutes, he stood atop the structure, hundreds of feet off the ground, Al, Envy, and the chimeras all stared in awe at this display of unparalleled alchemic might.

"Whoa…reforming Eastern Command was one thing, but just creating an entire building with alchemy from sand…" Al comments quietly.

"Now Greed, let me put my terms on the table, my ultimatum. If you join with me, I promise you complete immunity from Father, and a way to make you human yet retain your powers. But if you choose to be my enemy, you won't be around for long" I say as I compress my feet and prepare to jump. Leaping high into the air, I took flight and once I was several miles above the ground, I began to zoom back toward the earth below, stopping just inches from Greed's face, startling the homunculus and almost causing him to lose his balance.

"So how about it pal, friend or foe?" I ask with a smile. His response was an attempted slash to my face. Missing me by miles, I flipped backward and emitted a Ki pulse through the structure, causing it to instantly crumble back into loose sand. Floating in the air, I watched Greed land on his feet and scream at the sky.

"I'll not be tricked by you ya freak!" he shouts indignantly.

"Very well, then that makes you a fool" I say calmly as I clench my fists and raise them to my sides, two glowing purple spheres forming in my grasp.

"And Fools…-" I shout as I begin to emulate Raditz's voice.

"MUST DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" I bellow as I point them at the moron, and let them loose. As he realized what he was facing, he barely dodged in time, losing a leg in the process, and promptly screaming in agony from having his flesh atomized.

"What the hell was that?" he moans as he waits for his leg to reform.

"Pure energy, life force energy, its called Ki" I state flatly as I float down to look him in the eyes.

"Yeah, and believe me, it can kill you (Snaps fingers) like that, he has enough raw power to destroy entire planets with but a finger, so what do you think that means for you?" Envy adds with a straight face. Greed immediately became more fearful as he figured out just what he'd gotten himself into.

"Bro, I highly recommend you make the choice to join us, because believe me, Edward won't hesitate to turn you into a grease stain if you don't change" Envy says with a sigh.

"That's right, so what will it be Greed the Avaricious?" I state as I raise an eyebrow.

"Come at me!" Greed roars as he reactivates his ultimate shield over limbs and neck, then charges me. I sighed and charged him too, hoping he'd change his mind before it was too late.

_5 Minutes Later_

Lying in a pool of his own blood, Greed panted heavily, having been killed 10 times before he would stay down. As I slowly walked toward him, he snarled and looked at me viciously as he regenerated, his shield having been smashed long ago just after the curb stomp battle began.

"So Greed, have you reconsidered my generous offer?" I ask calmly. Responding my snorting his sinuses, he hocked up a bloody glob right into my eyes. I instantly became enraged and my energy spiked, causing the secretion to boil and vaporize off me in moments.

"Alright then, your funeral; so how should I kill you?" I ponder as I rub my chin. Having finished healing, he attempted to trip me, but I easily jumped over it, then stomped my foot onto his stomach to immobilize him. After a few moments, I came upon a fitting way to kill the homunculus that embodies avarice.

"Alright Greed, here's how you'll die; first, I'll be shooting you through the heart, like so-" I start as I hold up my right index finger and form a pink tip of Ki, then pointed it at his chest and emitted a death beam straight through his aorta, popping and melting the whole organ like a laser through a water balloon. A huge spurt of blood immediately gushed from the wound and onto my clothes. The others behind us winced at this, even Envy.

"-Until your regenerative powers run out and you're down to your last soul, your own. At that point, the only life left will be yours, and I'll be boiling you alive in molten tungsten metal of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit; seems fitting for a selfish greedy bastard like you doncha think?" I say with a wicked grin as I form another death beam and prepare to fire it as his wound finishes closing. All he could do was groan in agony, as the severe pain of having his heart burst likely almost made him black out. Firing another one, I heard him scream once again as his sanguine pump was once more ruptured completely.

**Martel**

After letting Greed heal a second time and reform, Edward once again fired that pink and red beam through his chest, and I could feel it was rather malevolent, somehow filled with dark and negative power, my animal senses said it was deadly, and that just being grazed by it could cause severe damage to any part of the body it touched.

"You want everything one can imagine? We'll I'm gonna give you all the pain you can imagine, and then some" Edward says with a low wicked chuckle. As the energy reformed on his fingertip, he once again pierced Greed's chest with the lethal light, and Greed screamed with agony once more. This time after he regenerated, Edward didn't immediately begin to charge up the attack again, allowing Greed to coat himself with his ultimate shield.

"(Pant Pant) What now? I know you're strong, but I doubt that you'll be able to hurt me now. All the pervious times you injured me, I wasn't fully covered, you just had a speed advantage and got me where I was vulnerable. But now that I have no more weak points, lets see if you can take down" Greed wheezes, slowly regaining his breath. I sighed with relief, feeling grateful that Edward had been dumb enough to let my friend gain the advantage so he wouldn't be slaughtered.

However, confusion entered my brain as Edward began to laugh maniacally, throwing his head back as he cackled madly with glee…but why?

"Wha…STOP LAUGHING! In this form I'm invincible, and clearly you're not!" Greed roars as he reaches up with his arm and scratches Edward's stomach. I was worried we might soon see the boy's guts spill out soon, but then Edward aimed his head back down to Greed and directed his gaze straight into his eyes, this time I could tell he was enjoying the glare he gave Greed, because he was smiling, and not in pain at all.

"Ouch…that almost tickled" he replies with a dry tone, but keeping the sadistic grin. As I pivoted where I stood a little, I saw why Greed had such a look of horror on his face. In the area he'd slashed at, the only damage, were tear marks in Edward's shirt, he didn't even have a scuff mark on his skin! Moments later, Edward began to push his boot even harder into Greed's chest, which caused him to gasp as his lungs were emptied of air forcibly, and momentarily.

"My dear friend, how could I make this even more painful for you?" Edward remarks as he puts his hands on his hips for a moment. Then, Edward suddenly snapped his fingers, apparently having figured out another way to torture him.

"I know! How about I start by proving that your so called "Ultimate Shield" is little more than dried shit-" Edward begins as he leans down and begins to push on Greed's chest with his finger, and loud cracking and screaming began to be heard as his armored skin began to break.

"-even in comparison to but the smallest fraction of my power!" Edward laughs as he applies more pressure, and instantly shatters Greed's shield like glass, plunging his hand straight through his chest and tearing out his stone, then tossing it away, while Greed's body slowly disintegrated into black dust that quickly vanished into the wind. However, before anyone could scream in horror, Edward walked over to the stone and kicked it lightly.

"Get up, I'm not done with you, and I know it takes more than that to kill a homunculus!" he yells, causing my confusion to rise; had we not all just witnessed Edward brutally kill my leader and friend?

My answers soon came, as flesh began to sprout from the stone and quickly reformed into…

"(Weak groan) Damn, that was the most intense pain I've ever felt man, I'm beginning to think you're enjoying this twisted game" Greed moans weakly as he rubs his forehead slowly. Edward quickly grabbed him by the throat and tossed my friend back into the sand, placing his boot back on his stomach.

no way, I'd seen him recover from some crazy stuff, but reforming his entire body, that was just insane. Still, it didn't seem even that kind of healing ability would save Greed from Edward.

I was beginning to become worried; I'd heard a lot about the great state alchemist Edward Elric, and also about the monster. But now having learned that Edward and the monster are one and the same, I wondered which person he was really inside. Having done more research on the boy after the incident in Central, I learned he really was a kind guy deep down, but with an obviously troubled past, as he had after all burned down his own home, but he'd never acted like he did in Central before his makeover into whatever these Saiyan things I'd heard him mention he'd become are. I had a hunch though, and I needed to test it, not only to learn who the real Edward is, but also to save Greed's life…even at the cost of my own.

"What I _enjoy_, is giving scum like you the beat downs you deserve since you either have no heart to try and change, or are too stubborn to do so" Edward says with a mixture of both coldness, and strangely, hesitance.

"Am I really that bad?" Greed says tiredly as he pants.

"I think we all know the answer to that" Edward states flatly, apparently too consumed with rage to even think straight. Suddenly he raised his hands and a blood red orb of pulsating energy began to form in his hand, and he put it straight up to Greed's nose, just inches away from his flesh.

"You know, the best way to make a comparison of how much raw power this thing holds, would be to call it a miniature star Greed; I wonder how long you'll last, even with your Ultimate Shield active when you're inside a sphere with temperatures exceeding more than a million degrees?" Edward says as he begins to push the orb closer, its size slowly growing larger as it got closer.

Without warning though, Edward just stopped and lowered his hand then got back up, removing his foot from Greed as he took a few steps back.

"No…you know what, that's too easy; using that move will ensure your death is instant and painless, much too good for the likes of you wicked homunculus" Edward says as he rubs his head, pondering a new idea.

"You know what, I'm gonna go back to the original plan, making your heart explode till you can't reform It anymore, then boil you alive" Edward laughs with that sadistic grin returning as he charged up the piercing blast again. I knew it was now or never, I had to try and snap Edward out of this; somehow I could feel that this was wrong, no one, not even Greed deserved to be tortured, not like this. Taking a deep breath, I ran and leapt right between Greed and Edward, just as he fired the light. The beam shot straight through my stomach, just below my liver and lungs, and as I felt the searing hot, agony of my flesh being boiled and vaporized, I saw up into Edward's face, and watched as his pupils contracted to pinpoints, his eyes glassing over with horror with his mouth forming into that shape made when one does a small gasp, as though he'd just noticed what was going on and what he'd done, just before I blacked out.

**Edward Elric**

Up until I saw Martel get struck with my beam, I'd been enjoying this, punishing the unrepentant Greed who wouldn't get a clue. But upon seeing the snake girl get struck through the abdomen, I snapped out of my saiyan battle lust induced sadism, and became horrified.

"No…Martel…this wasn't supposed to happen, I was gonna prevent her, and all of the other chimeras from dying" I say as I fall to my knees in shock upon seeing the dead girl. I just stood there with an aghast expression, my eyes stuck on the terrible scene before me; an innocent girl killed, all cause I let my saiyan nature control me again. My master was right, I had to get a handle on it, I'd not been properly trained in controlling the desire to kill and maim, I'd barely convinced him to teach me how to retain my intelligence as an Oozaru. How would I teach myself from ever letting this happen again? As I stared at her unmoving body, I began to cry, I now hated myself for letting myself down, and worse, Winry; I'd begun acting just like Scar, only without the prejudice.

**Greed**

When Edward fired the beam at me a third time, I'd anticipated he'd begin to spam me with them and then quickly boil me. But then, the last thing I expected to happen was Martel rushing up to me. Before he could hit me, she somehow made it in time and intercepted the beam, taking a fatal blow.

The fool, why would she throw away her life like that? It made no sense, I was fighting a hopeless battle to stay alive, and then she had to go and sacrifice herself for me. I just couldn't get it, why, WHY?

As Edward sat there with a glazed glassy look in his eyes, I couldn't stop thinking about what Martel had done. I was a thing, not a person, a monster, not a human, I was selfish, vain, greedy, and rude; why would she just take the hit meant for me when she could have let me get what was coming and survived?

"Why?" I ask out loud as I crawl over to Martel's corpse and crawl up onto my knees where it lay. The others began to slowly walk over to us, Envy seeming to have an uncharacteristically sad face as he knelt down beside me. Alphonse joined us too, his metal body creaking as he bent down.

"Why?" I repeat, as I grab Martel's right arm, then try to cradle her lifeless body, hoping she'd wake up.

"Because she was a true friend, like all the chimera's you cared for" Alphonse says softly as he puts a hand on my shoulder.

"What?" I ask, my eyes beginning to water.

"Bro, don't you get it? This is the kind of stuff I've always been jealous of, to have friends like she was, friends who'd sacrifice themselves for you, that's how much they care, that's what makes humans strong, their emotions and feelings, Ed helped me realize it before it was too late for me" Envy starts, then he clenched his free fist and slugged me with it.

"This is all your fault! Why didn't you just accept his offer, this wouldn't have happened if you hadn't pissed him off, now look at the torment he has to suffer! How is he gonna face his girl back home now that he's a real murderer, Fullmetal just killed a civilian in cold blood, even if it was an accident, how will he face her now!" Envy finishes as I rub my left cheek where he struck.

"Martel did that…just to save my sorry ass?" I drone hollowly, barely able to comprehend an act of such finality.

"Dude, she was as crazy about you as we are, maybe more so. We're your pals, your buddies, friends to the end. We'd all have gladly thrown ourselves at that blast if we weren't so paralyzed with fear, which means she was an even better friend than us" Dolcetto says as he begins to cry, the others were crying silently too. As I raised my hand to rub my face of blood and dirt, I found I was leaking tears too! As I pondered why this was happening, Edward started to cry, stifling loud moans.

"No…its my fault" Edward says quietly as tears begin to fall down his face too.

"If I'd only focused more on training to fight my vicious saiyan blood, this wouldn't have happened, I could have…" Edward sobs, his coherent words dissolving into hysterical weeping. I could understand me choking up a little since I knew Martel personally, but, to see a grown man sobbing like that over someone he didn't even know, that continued to puzzle me, but regardless, since it was my favorite, my Martel, I didn't try to stop crying, even though the sensation felt strange.

Suddenly, I felt Martel stir for a moment. Quickly putting my ear to her chest…I heard a faint heartbeat. Martel, she's still alive…

"SHE'S STILL ALIVE!" I scream, getting everyone's attention instantly, even Edward.

"What?" Edward asks, wiping his eyes.

"Her heartbeat, its faint but I know I heard it, someone do something, get a doctor!" I yell, becoming more desperate.

"Greed, its too late, we're out in the desert, the nearest doctor is hundreds of miles away, and that's if we're not too far from the border" Roa says solemnly.

"But with Edward's teleportation ability, distance is no consequence, he can go anywhere quicker than a blink, he can get her to a doctor!" Alphonse says cheerfully, causing my hope to rise back up.

"No, even then its too late; I can feel her vitals dropping fast, she's got maybe 2 minutes tops before she bites the big one. Even if he got her to a doctor with a stone, like Marcoh, unless they had it on their person, she'd be dead by the time they fished it out of storage" Envy counters, smashing my optimism to bits just as fast as it had gone up.

"You're all wrong, its not too late and we don't need a doctor" Edward states seriously, rising to his feet and looking down at Martel with a face of intense concentration.

"You were close Envy, but its more like a minute and fifteen seconds before she's gone, but that hardly matters cause I can heal her right now, even with her Ki this low; Greed, hold her still, everyone else step back!" Edward says authoritatively.

"Hang on, what the hell makes you think I'll trust you anything involving her anymore? YOU ALMOST KILLED HER!" I snarl as I turn my back to Edward.

"Well I may have fired the beam, but it was due to your stubbornness this all happened in the first place, so we're both at fault, but none of that matters now; do you want to see Martel die, DO YOU!" Edward asks angrily. I quickly looked at her face, slowly becoming more pale by the minute as her blood pressure began to drop. I bit my lip, unsure of what to do.

"Greed, trust him, he's the only one who can save her, DON'T LET HER DIE JUST CAUSE YOU CAN'T TRUST SOMEONE FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!" Envy shouts hysterically, his own face filled with tears.

Before I could add anything, Edward put a hand on my shoulder and turned me around to look in my eyes.

"Please Greed…let me fix my mistake before it becomes permanent, before I become a murderer" he pleads desperately.

I wrestled with the decision for what seemed like ages, unsure of whether I could let Edward just willingly touch Martel. Then I looked down at her face, and had an epiphany, like a complex puzzle that you couldn't figure out where the last handful of pieces went, just suddenly assembled itself in my head. I knew then I had to risk it, cause now I knew, I knew for sure…what the most valuable thing in the whole world was.

"Please…save her-" I choke as I look at Edward's face, who gasped when he saw it.

"-Save my friend, and I'll join your group" I weep as the tears flow freely. Edward surprisingly began to chuckle and opened up his palms like flowers, pointing them at Martel with a smile.

"Greed, I would have done it even if you'd continued to refuse my offer" Edward says cheerfully. Suddenly sparkling, golden light began to slowly emit from his hands in waves over her still form, but with a steady, pulsating series of beeps accompanying it.

In no time at all, Martel began to stir, and as the seconds passed, she became more active, till finally, after several minutes, she was completely healed, and began to awaken. I could still hardly believe that this energy was related to the same thing that had almost killed her less than 5 minutes ago, yet now, it was as if she'd never left the hideout this morning, all her injuries, minor and major were gone as well. After another minute, her eyes fluttered as she returned to us fully.

"Greed…tell me, are you dead like me?" she moans, apparently still weak from this dilemma.

Shaking my head, I felt myself smiling as I held her in my arms, gently saying, "No, Martel, we're both alive; Edward brought you back with some healing power, he almost went insane when he saw you seemed dead. But he did it, he saved your life"

Martel, surprisingly began to smile too, and she looked over at Edward with her warm face.

"That means I was right…deep down, you're not a monster, you're a true hero" she says gently.

"What?" Edward asks, his eyes still leaking like the rest of us.

"That move was dual purpose, to both save your life, and find out if Edward was really a hero, living through it was a bonus, thank you Fullmetal, for proving me right, and thank you Greed, for showing you really do care" she says softly as she turns back to me.

I could no longer contain myself, and hugged Martel tightly in my arms. The other chimera friends joined in too, making it a group hug. They'd been right, I was wrong; I'd somehow become convinced that I didn't need friends, that I could fill those wants with other stuff. But I'd only fooled myself, this was what I had truly craved, It was all I'd ever really wanted, people who love me and care about my well being, true friends, they were the most important, most valuable thing that existed.

"So what do you say now Greed, you wanna join up with my family? All your friends are welcome too" Edward says as he begins to shrink back to his small size again, holding out his hand once more in a peaceful offer.

Looking at Martel, I saw her and all the others nod, and so I set the girl down and shook Edward's hand.

"Buddy, anyone who can help open my eyes up like that can call me their dog, sign me on Fullmetal" I say as I use my other hand to wipe my eyes.

"Welcome to the team man, glad to have you on board; now, we'll go over all the details once we're back in the safety of-"

BANG!

After hearing the gunshot ring out, another one came immediately after, and we turned around to see a most disgusting…and saddening sight.

There on the ground, with bloody bullet holes in their forehead, were my friends Croc, and the ordinary human who'd joined up with me willingly to help with whatever I asked him to.

They were both dead.


	21. Chapter 21 Show Them Whatcha Got

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 21: Show Them Whatcha Got**

**Edward Elric**

As I stared at the two dead men, I felt upset, mostly at myself. I'd been so immersed in this intense conversation, that my concentration on the surrounding area had become lax, and allowed some people with guns to slip through and take cheap shots. However, my guilt quickly went away, replaced with anger as this time the deaths were not on my hands, but likely by members of a very specific, ethnic group. Reaching out with my senses, I found several energy signatures crouched in the building ruins behind us. Raising my hands as I turned around to face the direction of our assailants, I infused energy into my palms, and clapped them together, creating a very precise and powerful, low frequency pulse, causing all the stone 300 yards in front of me through a 40 yard wide path to crumble to dust, instantly revealing the murderers I'd expected; some radical Ishvalans. The group consisted of about 20 armed men, a few with sniper rifles, and they all looked shocked and angry.

"What the, how'd he do that?" one of them shouts with a baffled tone.

"Who cares, shot the military dog!" another shouts as they cock their rifles. Immediately, the whole group began to fire on me, their bullets bouncing harmlessly off my Ki film above my skin like peas.

"Come on, can't you losers do better than guns? Its obvious they aren't working" I taunt, relishing a little in my practically absolute invulnerability.

"Alright, bring in the heavy artillery!" a wrinkled old man shouts as he waves his arm. As they brought in a mini-gun, I groaned in annoyance; Ooooh, people just wanted to keep pissing me off today! I was getting tired of this pointless violence, it was time I stopped it cold.

"Everyone but Al, Greed, and Envy get behind the wall!" I yell as I form a big metal barrier behind me with my remote alchemy. The other chimeras quickly took the corpses of their fallen friends and scampered to the safety of the metal shield. Just moments later, they began firing the mini-gun, and directed its fire on me, the bullets all stopped cold by my cling wrap Ki barrier.

"Ishvalans? Ed, I don't think I can fight these guys, its kinda my fault they're in this mess and act this way, I don't have a good conscience to attack them without going overboard" Envy says worriedly as he steps back a few paces.

"Relax, you guys don't really need to fight, I'll take care of everything" I say calmly as I raise my left hand and form my palm into the shape used to make the Big Bang Attack. However, instead of a compact star-like orb of Ki, I shouted and blasted a kiai wave at the group, knocking them all off their feet as easily as bowling pins.

"(Whistle) Now I see Envy wasn't kidding when he said you can destroy planets, if toppling people is as simple as pointing your hand at them and screaming, I can hardly imagine what big balls of that light you make can do" Greed comments with a cool tone.

"Then why aren't you panicking?" I remark sarcastically.

"You know why, we all know you're better than that, so we're not worried" Greed says with a smile; it was good to know he trusted me finally. As I levitated a few feet above the ground, I floated over to where the group had been gathered, and looked down at the mass of pathetic, moaning pile of men.

"So, what was that name you guys used for me, a military dog?" I ask with a confident sarcastic smirk. The old man squeezed from out of the pile and looked at me with indignantly in his eyes, his red pupils fierce with rage.

"Why you, come say that to my face monster, and I'll…I'll…-" the man hesitates, as he notices my face as I lean down to him.

"You'll-You'll-You'll what? Shoot me, blast me, cut me? You can't; I'm obviously far more powerful than your rag tag "commandos", what makes you think you can take me down?" I say confidently, enjoying making him squirm. Suddenly however, he roared and leapt out of the pile of exhausted men, holding a pistol in his right hand.

"I'll kill all your friends! And even if you save them now, you'll be unable to watch them every moment of the day for the rest of their lives, we'll eventually taken revenge on Amestris for what its done to our holy homeland!" he screams as he aims the gun at Martel.

"I don't think so" Greed snarls as he forms his Ultimate Shield over his arm and grabs the gun, snapping it into scrap metal with a single squeeze.

"He's right, you won't be able to hurt any of my friends with my three best men on duty; between the four of us, and the military, you won't get within a mile of any of them. However, even if you should manage to do the deed, should I find out that even one of my friends was killed by an Ishvalan-" I say as I begin my explanation, returning back to my normal tall Saiyan form as I began the last sentence, pausing as the transformation finished. Then I held out my right hand, forming a Ki sphere in it, shining with a menacing red glow, the Ishvalan group beginning to shriek in terror, having learned that I was the monster from Central.

"-Your people and their "holy land" will cease to exist. I can blow it all sky high, not a trace, like fire from the sky" I state firmly, showing that this was not a bluff or a hollow threat, but a fact.

"Blasphemy! No mortal is that powerful, not even an alchemist, only Ishvala has that kind of power!" one of the taller young men who'd shot at me screams.

"Oh right, I forgot; you people claim to believe in miracles and stuff, but yet when you hear of such things from other sources than your "god", you can't accept them. Very well then, watch me prove you wrong" I proclaim coldly as I begin to build my grandest structure I'd ever attempted.

Clapping my hands to improve the flow of energy, I touched the ground, and huge arcs of alchemic discharge, yellow in color, started to race throughout the ground all around the desert for miles and miles. Then, a huge domed building easily the size of Resembool, and over a mile high, began to sprout from the ground. After several minutes, the huge structure had finished assembling itself, leaving the Ishvalan warriors gaping in awe, some of them showed a little fear.

"That's a small display of my power to build, and unlike ordinary alchemists, I can transmute any form of matter, and most forms of energy, between one state or another, and into virtually any shape, construct, or machine by mere thought, and a tiny application of energy and knowledge" I shout as I take flight, shooting off into the sky like a beam of light as my powered up blue aura blazed behind me, stopping a few thousand feet above the altitude of the 8000 foot structure that lay dozens of miles away from Xerxes.

"NOW, WITNESS BUT A FRACTION OF MY CAPACITY, FOR DESTRUCTION!" I bellow, causing the land to tremble violently. In my right hand, I enlarged the red Ki sphere into a huge death ball, keeping the power scaled down though, I certainly didn't want to blow up my planet, just the building I'd made. Then, rearing my arm back a hair, I tossed the orb straight at the dome.

**Roy Mustang**

"So Pride, any news about Father?" I ask as I see his shadow appear before my desk, quickly spitting up his container body.

"Not really, he still wishes to know more about the monster man who attacked Central, but he's completely in the dark thanks to our efforts and my sealed lips" he replies with his creepy, metallic echoing voice. Thankfully since he was a good guy now, his tone didn't have as chilling an effect as when we first met.

"Good, lets keep it that way for now, at least until Edward says otherwise, and what is that?" I remark as I take a glance out my window for a moment, and catch sight of a huge dome forming beyond our borders.

"What the…Pride, could that be Edward's work?" I ask as I stare at the gargantuan structure that had appeared from nowhere.

"Do you know anyone else who can build things of such magnitude with alchemy on their own?" Pride asks rhetorically.

Without warning, a crimson sphere appeared in the skies just above the area the building had formed. Then, the orb began to fall down, and the dome was lit up with a bright red glow, vanishing moments later. A short period afterward, something with noise comparable to hundreds of thunderclaps going off at once blared through the air, shattering every window in the building, including my office window, creating showers of sparkling shards. I had to cover my ears as it felt like my eardrums had almost popped.

"Whoa, what the hell is that?" I groan, still reeling from the pressure wave.

"It appears Edward decided to give a more clear example of his might to some unfortunate souls; they must have really pissed him off to have to do a demonstration like that" Pride says coolly.

"Seems to have come from the desert area, maybe near Xerxes. I'll inform my men, you go tell Lust and the others not with Edward, I recall getting a message from Penako a few days ago that Winry arrived in Rush Valley, so she'll likely still be there" I say calmly. Sighing deeply, I remembered Edward's rampage from several weeks ago just after he'd returned to us.

"I sure hope he hasn't gone berserk again like before, but its not like we can stop him, not by force at least, ok get going Pride, the others need to hear of this" I say as I turn around and salute him.

"Sir, at once sir" the eldest homunculus says with a bow. Just as he started to sink into his shadow, he began to say something interesting.

"Oh, and always remember, if you ever need me, if any of you ever need me, whisper my name, for I shall be watching, from the shadows" he says with a confident smile as his head sinks beneath the floor and his shadow portal vanishes.

**Alphonse Elric**

Just after my brother finished hovering back to the ground, the extremists split into two groups; one that had wet their pants, and something…far grosser, were fleeing for their lives in terror, and the rest, including the tiny old man, were enraged, and attempted to charge us, believing my brother's display an act of deception to try and strong arm them into submission. A quick succession of those same pink and red beams Edward had used to brutally kill Greed through their shins quickly tamed most of them.

However, the old man made a huge mistake and insulted everything my brother and I stood for as he screamed, "You're just a pathetic pawn fascist bastard, AN ARROGANT BRAGGART WHO FUCKS WITH THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE WORLD FOR THEIR OWN GAIN!"

"SAY WHAT? WHY YOU TINY, SHORT SIGHTED FOOL, I OUGHTA YANK YOUR BONES AND ORGANS OUT, THEN TURN YOU INTO A LEATHER SACK!" Edward roars with rage as he begins to stomp toward the now terrified man, as Edward began to glow with a fierce blue aura once more.

Just before things could get out of hand, an old woman with a young boy at her side walked between them and slapped Edward's knee with her cane. Though clearly he had barely felt it, it got my brother's attention, and he stopped trying to kill them.

"That's enough of your shameful behavior" the bandaged woman says sternly to the Ishvalans, causing the elderly man to stop his attack, then bow like the others and muttered, "Madam Shan, my darling"

"Look at you fools, are you all trying to dishonor the name of Ishvala?" she asks with a serious tone, causing man. Then she turned her gaze to Edward.

"And you, such a boastful display of power, are you trying to bring down the wrath of god? More importantly, how can you turn such a wicked power upon these defenseless men, do you realize how easily you could kill them, even by accident?" she says accusingly as she poke's my brother with her cane in the chest.

"I know that, I was trying to hold back, I just lost my temper when this guy called the science of Alchemy an abomination, I know parts of it are wrong, but it isn't a black magic art, it's a tool, it can be used for good or evil, just like a gun or a sword, all depends on who wields it" Edward argues succinctly.

"Yeah, you people really need to take a better look at Alchemy as a whole, its more than just a weapon, if you took time and studied it like us, you'd know how wonderful and amazing it is, it can help people, save lives; I don't think any decent deity would frown upon that if they exist" I reply heatedly, earning a few confused grumblings, but they quickly silenced themselves as she walked closer to him.

Opening her left eye, she stared at me intensely, then back to my brother.

"I wasn't talking about your alchemy, I meant the technique you used to destroy the dome you made with it" Shan says coldly. I gasped as I realized what she was putting down.

"You fools…do you realize what you're condemning? That wasn't a mere burst of energy, it was pure Ki" Edward says as he clenches his fist and begins to shrink back down to his disguise.

"Or as its also known by, Chi" I add, hoping it would cause their attitudes to change. Remarkably, it did, but not in the way I expected it.

"Wait, are y-y-you saying you can manipulate your own life force energy?" the elderly man asks as his mouthful of crooked teeth chatters.

"Yeah, that was my own life force, emitted in a condensed sphere of raw power for offensive means" Edward replies calmly.

"Witchcraft! You wicked man, you tamper with your own spirit; the Xingese people at least know better than to actually tinker with their life energy, all they do is learn how to sense it for some reason, maybe detection or the like, but regardless they know what bounds to not overstep!" a random young man shouts with rage.

"So you think Ki manipulation is an abomination do you? Well try saying that after I do this!" Edward screams as he opens his palms to point at Madam Shan, causing her to gasp and the other men to growl as they start moving toward my brother. I suddenly realized what he was about to do, so I rushed over to them and held my arms out.

"Stop! He's not going to hurt her, he's actually about to do the exact opposite" I say quietly as I turn my head around to watch the display. Moments later, Edward began to emit that pulsing, beeping series of glittering Ki waves, slowly bathing Shan in its light. After 30 seconds, he stopped the flow of energy and Shan gasped even louder.

"That's right, remove your bandage, see just what kind of "abomination" I've abused" he spits cattily.

Shaking immensely, and reaching her hands up to the back of her head, she untied the bandage, and let it fall to the ground, causing the other Ishvalans to gasp.

"My…my eye, its been completely restored" she stammers shakily as she feels her right socket, and touches it. Then she emitted another gasp, and she dropped the cane.

"My legs, my bones, my back, they're all better" she drones as she stands up more erectly.

Turning to face the men again, I gestured toward their elder with my right arm.

"If any of you dare call Ki manipulation a wicked practice ever again, I will truly hate your societies' values; my brother is a true hero, he just improved her total health in less than a minute, she even has both eyes to use again, that's as far from evil as humanly possible" I explain, causing them to lower their heads in shame.

"This is amazing, I…I feel fantastic" she remarks

"Yeah, and by mixing Ki with my alchemy, I can do something even more fantastic, like this!" he shouts as he grabs her face in a manner akin to the way Scar would grab his victims.

"NOOOOOOOO!" the boy shrieks with horror, as blue and yellow bolts of energy streak all throughout Shan's body.

"Brother, what are you do…-" I start, until I notice what's happening to Shan.

Her wrinkles were beginning to vanish, her skin becoming more taut, and her stance even more proper as she stopped hunching over, and somehow began to get even taller! Her eyes became more lustrous, her skin began to glow, her lips puffed out and became thick and soft, the cheekbones becoming more prominent as her skin tightened, hairs that had sprouted in strange places vanishing. It was like she was…getting younger. After several minutes, Edward took his hand off her face and floated back to the ground, having had to levitate a little to keep his hand there since he was in his short human form. The moment he removed it, we all gasped, even Edward.

"Holy shit" I babble as I look at what he'd done.

Madam Shan, no longer was she a frail, elderly woman…she was a buxom, 20 something beauty!

"Wha…what happened to me?" Shan asks timidly, her voice no longer gravelly and hoarse, but smooth and velvety.

"AW CRAP! Damn, I went too far, I only meant to de-age Shan back to her 60s, not into a bombshell!" Edward says with stress in his voice as he clutches his head with anguish.

"Wait, I'm younger?" she says worriedly.

"Yeah, how old were you just a few minutes ago?" I ask, curious as to how far off Edward had been with his calculations, whatever they were.

"Were? I don't think were is the appropriate word to use, I _AM_ 105 years old" she replies, her tone having gotten more forceful.

"More like 25 Madam Shan, at least biologically" Edward says shakily as he points at her.

"Can you make me a mirror please? I need to see what's happened to me" she asks worriedly. Suddenly, a full length mirror appeared right before her, undoubtedly due to brother's super alchemy. A shrill scream from the woman made everyone one jump.

"Great Ishvala…I'm…I'm…-"

"Gorgeous, just like when we met back in our youth darling" the little man says warmly as he walks over and pats his wife's back.

"But…its not natural, I mean, I just dropped 80 years like it was the fat removal surgery I heard of back in my youth, that just doesn't seem right" Shan says hysterically. The man held her hands and smiled.

"I don't see it as wrong, unnatural maybe, but there is nothing wrong with you being the most beautiful you can be once again, think of it as a second chance for us dear" he says kindly, turning his head over to Edward with a hopeful look.

"That is, if you could please restore me to my physical prime as well, please sir?" he pleads.

"Make a cranky old rude geezer young and healthy again, after he tried to kill me and my friends? IIIIII DON'T THINK SO!" Edward snorts as he turns his nose up and his back on the man.

"Brother, come on, look at how young his wife is now, think about the pain she'll have to go through when her husband dies because he didn't get the gift of youth like she did. It won't be a gift anymore, but a curse, and it will be your fault, all the misery she has due to that will be on your head Ed" I admonish, causing him to sigh.

"Ok, I'll do it, but only cause it'd be unfair to leave your wife stuck with an ancient husband who'd die long before she re-enters old age, I don't need that kind of guilt" Edward replies as he touches the man and begins to repeat the process. When it was over, a muscular, tall man with a white beard and long white locks stood by Shan. The statuesque couple hugging each other warmly.

"Thank you son, you have no idea how much this means to us" the man says with a smile, his voice now very deep but smooth instead of the pervious shallow, crackling tone.

"Yeah yeah, you're welcome, so do you have a name?" Ed asks with an annoyed tone.

"I'm Sean" he says kindly.

"And I'm Edward Elric, glad we settled this just some minor injuries, which reminds me" he continues, as he turns his attention to the other men with bleeding wounds. Using his Ki healing once more, he undid all the wounds he'd inflicted on the rest of them, then turned around and the barrier the chimeras had hidden behind was undone.

"Come on Al, we've got business to attend to, gotta get going" he says as he waves his arm, motioning me to come join them. As I rushed to catch up, I noticed Envy and Greed had hidden behind the barrier at some point after the craziness had begun, likely during the big explosive demonstration.

"Oh! One more thing Sean" Edward replies as he extends his pinky and walks back over to him. With a light poke, he struck the man in the stomach, and he doubled over as though struck with a solid jab to the gut.

"Owww…ok, I deserved that much, I did try to kill people, and we apologize for the friends we did kill" he says somberly.

"Not so sure you can be forgiven for that, but It would be just as wrong of me to kill you and your men in revenge, so be thankful I have a big fat conscience; ok take care folks, I'll set everything right in the near future, and you'll all have homes to return to" Ed says quietly as he turns back around again and walks back toward our group.

"So, what exactly are we supposed to do now General Elric?" Greed jokes as he nudges my brother's rib.

"First we're heading back to the Devil's Nest before the military gets here and figures out that the monster and the Fullmetal Alchemist are one and the same, which reminds me, you guys better keep that knowledge about me being the superhuman creature to yourselves, got it!" he replies to Greed, then shouts the last part to the Ishvalans. They all agreed, and a few moments later, we all teleported back into the hideout.

**Edward Elric**

After returning to the Devil's Nest, we narrowly avoided the search party led by Wrath, whom I was surprised had still found out our new ally's hideout. Once having successfully lost them, and made sure that we wouldn't be followed, we buried Croc and the guy who had been with Greed's gang. After a moment of silence in respect to their lives, Greed requested that he be allowed to accompany us on the journey. Initially I had objected, until I remembered that Father's main source of surveillance, Pride had become a double agent just like Lust. Seeing as none of the military knew who Greed is fully shielded or not, he could travel without much fear of detection.

Having cleared that up, we then introduced Izumi and Sig to Greed and his crew. The meeting had gone much more smoothly than it had with Envy and myself, and she quickly became friends with Martel, while Sig befriended Roa. Finally, after a night of rest and relaxation, we said bye to our former teacher, and were able to leave after I'd promised to teach her some of my skills one day. Agreeing wholeheartedly, we left for the bank, where I went alone and made a sizeable withdrawal from my state alchemist account. Then, I gave each of Greed's friends enough cash to buy several tickets for wherever they might plan to go after Rush Valley, which we'd all agreed to stop at so I could fill in Winry on the latest details. By 9 AM, we'd all boarded and were sitting in the same passenger car.

Two hours had passed, and we were almost a third of the way to Rush Valley, when Greed suddenly came over to our seats and sat down with Envy, my brother and me.

"So, you seem to have quite a bit of cash kid, mind telling me how you got it?" he asks with an interested smile.

"Calm down, we'll have that all encompassing emotion you embody taken care of one day, but for now you just gotta resist, there will be no theft under my watch" I reply as I look out the window, sensing Father, who had yet to move still.

Pausing for a moment, he then opened his mouth, and I anticipated his next request by retorting, "And no, I will not use my alchemy to make a 50 foot mound of gold bullion, that could jeopardize the economy"

"You know me well kid; but I' am serious about how you got it, I doubt you gained a cen by illicit means, so where did your fortune come from?" Greed presses. Sighing, I turned to face him and smiled.

"You want the truth? Alright then, here it is; I earned it" I say with a smile, and enjoyed his shock.

"All of it?" he continues with disbelief.

"More than 80 percent of it, my mom did leave us a sizeable portion of inheritance, our dad is actually quite wealthy, I mean, he's slightly older than Father. But I earned most of it, the yearly grant each State Alchemist gets is quite amazing, and asides from the occasional early attempts Al and I used to try and get our bodies back, we've barely spent a dime of it, just what I needed for food, room and board, and until recently, the rare out of town automail tune-ups from other mechanics during a pinch; that means most of my fortune is just sitting in the banks" I explain with a growing grin.

"How much do you state alchemists make every year?" Greed asks as he sits back and sips on a flask of beer.

"The standard yearly grants every state alchemist gets amounts to 10 million cenz, and it can be spent on anything, or just be used as savings" I reply as I lean back, causing the homunculus to spit out his mouthful of crap onto Alphonse.

"UGH! Hey, be more careful, some parts of my armor are weathered and vulnerable to rusting; brother checks up on that every few weeks, but I'm not usually around liquids and oxidation can happen rapidly depending on the substance or conditions" Al whines as he grabs my coat and attempts to wipe it off.

"Al, don't use my coat to mop up that dreck! And you, don't do the spit take when there are people in front of yourself, its just gross" I shout as I grab it back before he can touch the filthy liquid, and quickly evaporate the stuff off his armor with my alchemy before he tries something else dumb like that.

"Sorry" they both reply.

"Anyways, seriously, 10 million cenz a year?" Greed asks with shock.

"Yeah, and you can even request more if you wanna to go about furthering the field of alchemy, or just your own knowledge of a specific area, but then you have to take an evaluation during the years you're experimenting and using many resources, to prove that you aren't wasting the military's money. But again, I barely spend a dime of my cash, and none of my experiments to try and get our bodies went over the limits that separated living expenses from experimental research costs, so I'm worth more than 25 million" I finish, causing Greed to once again begin to do a spit take. Thinking quickly this time, I made a Ki screen to block Al's armor from being soaked again, and it evaporated into gas from the level of energy in it.

"Well, now I see why you didn't have any trouble giving us cash for the travel fare, thanks by the way" he says as he gets up and heads back to his original seat.

"Brother, can we trust them? I mean, I know you want to, but I'm worried this will end up like Shou Tucker, remember how great he seemed, yet he sacrificed his own family for his own gain; can these artificial humans really change when they're each embodiments of a single emotion?" Alphonse asks suddenly, taking me by surprise.

"I know it may seem risky, but you forget what I've become, and what kind of connections I have now. Even they do betray us and kill you guys, I can bring you back" I say slyly, trying to make sure that Greed wouldn't hear.

"Brother! You know human transmutation doesn't work, remember mom?" he chastises harshly.

"Actually it can work, we just didn't do it right; we rebounded, we didn't pay the equivalent price. To resurrect with human transmutation, it's a soul for a soul, we'd have to use a living person as payment to bring back the deceased one" I reply with a frown, showing him how much I hated the idea.

"Brother, you wouldn't dare…would you?" he asks fearfully.

"Absolutely not, I'm just saying it is possible with alchemy to bring back the dead in this realm. But, that's not how I'd bring you guys back" I whisper.

"You mean there's another way besides human transmutation?" he asks excitedly.

"Yeah, and I'll tell you, but not here, too many potential eavesdroppers; this is something I want to insure will remain a secret from anyone other than our close friends" I finish as I lean back in the seat once more. Nodding in agreement, we both went back to relaxing, and I helped pass the time by telling others of some great ideas I wanted to introduce to our world once the threat of Father is done, all regarding science I'd seen in the DBZ universe. The rest of the trip was very peaceful, and a few hours later, I slipped into a peaceful slumber. But just before I fell asleep, I had a feeling it might not stay peaceful for long.

_Edward's Dream_

"Huh, Where am I?" I say out loud, the question echoing several times across near pitch-black void.

"Your mind has traveled to my realm, because you and your master need to hear this warning, especially you Edward" the all too familiar voice belonging to a being I'd long grown tired of remembering existed.

"Let me guess, you're upset at me for something and want me to pay a price? Ok Truth, tell me then, what are you gonna do? Psyagon can see and hear anything I can, and I bet that includes my dreams since he's psionic. Anyways, isn't your realm supposed to be bright?" I reply as I turn around to stare at the white being behind me.

"Absolutely not, remember, your debts have been paid in full; but I' am here to warn you both about the consequences of your actions" he says as he frowns.

"What do you mean? I thought you just said-"

"I said I wasn't here to try and take anything from you, I never said that your purpose for visiting me wasn't bad. You've made a fine mess of things by saving that family man" Truth interrupts with a sigh.

For a moment I couldn't put my finger on what he meant by that, but then it hit me, the biggest family man I knew was…

"Hughes? How is saving Maes Hughes from certain death a bad thing!" I snap, amazed that he thought saving an innocent man's life was a bad thing.

"Well I'd be asking the same thing, if I didn't have knowledge of all points of time in this universe, technically I' am the overseer of this part of existence. I've seen how the future is supposed to go, and it wasn't gonna end too badly if Hughes had perished as planned, only a few more of your friends would end up in the grave" Truth says with his usual huge grin.

"Well that's not happening, I have all the power I could ever need, and I'm gonna use it to make sure that no more of my friends die if I can help it!" I scream, enraged that he thought such an outcome was acceptable.

"Would you prefer that billions more die instead of just a few?" he asks as his grin turns to a serious frown, catching me off guard.

"Billions…what are you saying, that by letting Hughes live, I've endangered the entire world?" I ask, my tone hollow and filled with shock.

"Oh sorry, I left out a few words in that sentence, I meant billions, and possibly more vastly more" he adds, causing my mouth to hang open.

"You don't seem to grasp how important he was to keeping the balance, but then I doubt you'd have accepted it even if you did know before how vital it was for him to die. Originally, when time was meant to go as foreseen for this world, Hughes death would get you all on the track to figuring out about the big plan hatched by the dwarf in the flask" he continues, causing me to groan.

"I know all that, that's how I knew to go save his life" I reply with a sigh.

"And that's the mistake you made, when you saved his life, the future that I'd foreseen vanished, like changing the flow of a river carelessly, it can tip the balance of ecology for the entire ecosystem toward chaos. For now, I do not know what may become of the it, but I have a foreboding feeling of dread, so be warned, things may happen that will take everyone by surprise" he says solemnly.

"Is that why its dark here instead of the usual white?" I remark as I look around with my natural saiyan night vision.

"Yeah, it signifies just how worried I' am; I hope Psyagon is as powerful as the rumors say, because we may need his help. For now, return to your friends, and go on with your plans, I do know they are of good intent, so I cannot say that your methods are wrong. Good luck" the Truth says with a soft smile. Immediately after that, his mouth opened up all huge and began to swallow me.

_End Nightmare_

**Alphonse Elric**

As I shook my brother in a desperate attempt to wake him before someone saw this scene, I began to think of backup ways to make sure he would move it. After Ed fell asleep, he must have forgotten to power down, cause just a few minutes ago, he'd crashed through the back of his seat just from shifting his position slightly, leaving and Edward shaped hole in the seat of the train.

"Brother, BROTHER! Please wake up before we're discovered, you wrecked the seat, you have to fix it" I beg, hoping it would get him up faster.

"Whoa…what the hell happened here?" Greed asks as he shifts his sunglasses, looking at the mess my brother's carelessness had made.

"He shifted in his sleep" I say as I shake him more desperately.

"That was caused by a little tossing and turning?" Martel asks with disbelief as she walks over too.

"Well you see, brother's power of Ki saturates his entire body, and it doesn't exactly just go away when its not in use, Ki is life force, so it is always on unless you use it all up, meaning you die. However, the more Ki you have, the more you have to suppress it to safely be around ordinary materials, cause Ki powers up all parts of your body, especially muscles and durability, so when he just moved a tiny bit, it was like putting 20 tons of pressure on a wall mount, it just snapped, and…why won't you wake up? Brother, you gotta get up and fix this damage so we can keep from arousing suspicion!" I yell, feeling grateful that the boxcar we were occupying only held our group.

"Alphonse, what's with all the racket? I was trying to see what the country side looks like from the train" Envy grumbles as he comes up from the entrance that led between us and the caboose.

"Envy, look what brother did cause he forgot to power down more before he slept!" I shout as I let go of Edward, having given up any hope of waking him on my own.

"I know how to wake him up" Envy says with a wicked grin.

Leaning down, Envy chuckled as he got near brother's ear.

"Hey Edward, its time for you to drink your milk" he laughs.

"AAAHHH, MILK, GET IT AWAY FROM ME, ITS DISGUSTING!" Edward screams as he bolts up like a rocket, breaking even more of the seat!

"(Scream of horror) BROTHER, THE BOOTH!" I howl, now getting very worried that we'd be found out.

"Wha…where am I-YAAHH! What the hell happened here?" he screams as he sees the damage.

"You didn't power down when you went to sleep, quick fix it" I say as I help my still out of it brother to his feet.

"(Groan) Oh man, thankfully I can just do this" he says with a smile as the alchemic energies surge through the bench and all the broken pieces reassemble.

"(Whistle) Man…just like ole dad can do" Greed laughs.

"Except brother doesn't use souls, its all through manipulation of his own energy or that around him, that's how he uses his alchemy now" I respond, causing Greed to go silent.

"Well…that certainly gives him further advantages over pops; however, I wanna know when we're gonna take him down" the avaricious homunculus says with a smile.

"Later, I wanna try and get Al's soul back in his body first, and we have till the promised day Father planed to try and get that done, now come on, we're at Rush Valley, time to go introduce you to Winry" Ed says as the train comes to a stop.

"How do you know that-"

"Attention, all passengers bound for Rush Valley prepare to disembark" the com system announces, cutting my train of thought.

"I can sense her Al, she's working on automail from the level of fluctuation I'm feeling" Ed replies as he opens the door.

After 10 minutes, we reached her shop, and Edward came up behind her, floating so he was totally silent. Then he tapped her shoulder.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH! SOMETHING TOUCHED ME!" she screams with horror.

"HA HA HA! Man, I've always wanted to do that, it just wasn't possible till recently cause of that loud automail" Ed laughs heartily.

**Winry Rockbell**

Scowling, I grabbed and wrench and prepared to clobber Edward for this rude joke he just pulled, but just as I prepared to smack him good, he grabbed the wrench and disarmed me.

"Winry, easy, it was a gag, calm down" he says as he hugs me.

"Oh…damn it, those hugs with that new hunky body of yours are just too good to pass up, even when you're in the small disguise I can feel those muscles" I sigh as I hug him back, cursing myself for being so easily beaten.

"You know you love me Winry; now, I have a new friend for you to meet, so please don't freak out" he says with a smile as he lets go and walks outside for a moment.

"Ok, here they are, our newest friends, the Chimera Gang" Edward says proudly as a group of 4 people walk in.

"So you're the girl Mr. Monster has such a liking of? Well he has good tastes if you ask me, by the way, my name is Martel, part snake" the blonde girl says as she offers a hand.

"Winry Rockbell, and I was his mechanic; I loved my job, but then he had to go and get himself transmogrified into an extraterrestrial and get new unbreakable arms. I'm glad that automail doesn't rely on one guy to be a profession, or I'd be out of a job" I reply, causing her to chuckle.

"You're not gonna let that get between you guys right, it'd be a shame for you two to just lose it all cause of his new status as invincible" Martel says with a smile, causing me to blush.

"He likes to brag about me doesn't he?" I sigh, wondering how many folks Edward had told about us.

"What? Oh no, it wasn't him who told me this, his teacher Izumi did; he'd confided in her, and she couldn't resist telling me, we became pals fast" Martel whispers.

"Oh…I see; anyways, who are the others with you?" I ask, noting the big man, the bald one in the cloak, and the guy with a katana and slicked hair.

"Oh, those are my other chimera friends. The big guy is Roa, fused with a cow, little cue ball is Bido, part lizard, and the spiky slick haired dude is Dolcetto, he's part dog. But there is one more, he isn't a chimera though, but he is our boss and friend" she explains as they each bow.

"Nice to meet you all, so who is your boss?" I ask as I look around, hoping I wasn't being set up for another prank.

"My little brother Greed leads them" Envy says with a smile as he walks in, taking a seat and returning to his androgynous form.

"That would be me" a smooth voice says from behind me. As I turned around, I saw a handsome man with even spikier hair than Dolcetto, as tall as Edward in his true form. I was about to ask what he was, till I remembered he was mentioned as Envy's brother, and he showed me the tattoo on his left hand.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! HOMUNCULUS!" I scream, remembering Edward's warning that I should be prepared to fight or run from anyone that isn't allied with us, and the only homunculi that were currently were Pride, Envy, Lust, and Gluttony. Swinging as fast as I could, I aimed my monkey wrench and prepared to smash his face.

CLANG!

"Whoa, take it easy girl, I'm one of the good guys…I think; I do know I'm not allowed to hurt anyone, and I defected from Father long ago, over 100 years ago" he says with an echoing voice as my wrench hits his neck, the skin suddenly having become a very hard black/grey material.

"Wait, really?" I say as I stop trying to hit him, but keeping the wrench on his skin.

"Yeah, he's clean, I mean pretty much any petty criminal would go straight after a demonstration of my new powers" Edward says as he forces my hand down and sets the wrench on the table.

"Well whether he's clean or not, I need you all to go now, I've got customers lining up, I've gotten very popular due to my craftsmanship, so we'll talk once the shop has closed at 5" I say as I shove them all out.

**Edward Elric**

Once we were kicked out, I sighed as I went to get a drink, deciding I'd help out with the local economy so I could keep Rush Valley alive for Winry.

"If you have such amazing power, why waste your money? I mean you made a building construct within minutes, can't you conjure a drink by making the glass and the liquid from the air or from energy?" Greed blabs, causing me to smack him.

"Shut up stupid! Do you want people to hear that? Then it will be an all out war, and I'll have to kill way more people than needed, so keep it down you idiot!" I say harshly as he rubs the back of his head.

"Geez, sorry, I'll keep that in mind next time" he whines.

"Look, me and Al need to talk, so you guys go do some other stuff, it's a private talk I need to have with my brother" I say as I shoo them away. Once they were gone, I looked for Al, but he was nowhere to be found. After going up the street, I reached a restaurant called Meshi and had a déjà vu feeling.

"I sure hope we don't find him the same way that the anime depicted" I sigh as I prepare to hear Al's voice.

"Brother!" he shouts from the entrance to an alley way.

"Well at least I had to look for Al first, but I got a sinking feeling the rest may play out similar" I say to myself as I walk over to him.

"Please tell me you found a stray cat" I groan as I prepare to hear the verdict.

"Uh…well no" he says as he picks up the man with the yellow coat.

"AW DAMN! Not Ling Yao! Well we can't just let him starve" I scream as I take him and drag his body to the Meshi establishment a few blocks away.


	22. The Transmogrification Of Ling

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 22: The Transmogrification Of Ling**

**Edward Elric**

As I watched Ling finish the 36th plate of food, I groaned, he reminded me of Goku when he was hungry based on the stories Psyagon had told.

"HOO WHOOOO! I feel so much better, you guys are life savers, thanks a lot. Your treat right?" he asks cheerfully.

"Yeah sure, but before I pay for your huge meal, I wanna ask some questions…Ling Yao" I say as I smirk, causing his eyes to open in shock.

"How did you know my name? We've never met before as far as I know" he says accusatively as his eyes open in shock.

"The Chang Clan found me and paid me to keep an eye out for a man named Ling Yao, who keeps his eyes shut most of the time, and has a piece of straw in his mouth" I say as I rub my fingernails, causing Al to gasp.

"Brother, you've been to Xing" Al whispers to me.

"No, I just know all about his, outside sources from my master, I wanna mess with him a little" I whisper back as I wink to him, causing him to nod.

"So you're allied with a rival of mine eh?" Ling asks with a suspicious look.

"Yeah, they said I should kill you if we meet" I say as I snap my fingers, and Al rushes over and restrains him.

"What the…how can someone so big move that fast?" Ling grunts as my brother holds him.

"So how should I kill you; maybe my preferred method of boiling them down, and eating the liquid remains" I say casually, causing Ling to begin to sweat.

"Heh, so your brother is your guard eh? Well I have guards too" Ling smiles as he snaps his fingers too, causing Lan Fan and Fu to appear from the rooftops, but at their speeds, to the human eye it would have seemed like they appeared from thin air. Just like in the anime, Lan Fan had the dagger to my throat, and Fu had his katana to Al's arm socket.

"Now, I know you're an alchemist, cause since I came here, I heard stories of a young boy who was one of the most skilled ones in Amestris, and he has golden eyes and blonde hair, and I know you know about the philosopher's stone, and I want immortality, so spill it shorty" Ling says cockily as he smiles.

"Please, I don't have to waste my time on pathetic losers like you, I'm far beyond you in all manner of fighting skills and raw power" I laugh as I slap away Lan Fan's dagger like a toy, causing her to gasp.

"I have other people that can deal with you jokers (takes a deep breath and emit's a shrill piercing whistle)" I reply as I toot my lips off, causing Ling and his gang along with everyone nearby to cover their ears. Moments later, Greed and his gang appeared before me.

"Yes master, how can we be of service to you?" Bido says with a bow.

"Will you please not call me Master? Mister is fine, but no more, just Mr. Edward. Anyways, see those three, the two with masks and the closed eyes man?" I reply, causing Greed to laugh.

"So this is our first job eh boss, can we mince them?" the avaricious homunculus asks as he coats his hands with his ultimate shield.

"No, just humiliate them a little, I'll be talking to Ling once you've subdued him, now go" I say, causing the homunculus and chimeras to bow and rush the Xingese group.

"Wait, Al, Martel, come here" I shout, causing the two to break off and rush over.

"Yes, what can I do to assist this battle Mr. Edward?" she asks with a bow.

"Brother, why are you in need of us both?" Al asks with confusion.

"Cause Martel's blood is needed to unlock some memories" I say as I grab her finger and make a small incision with my nail, causing a drop of blood to leak out.

"Why do you need my?…-"

"Be patient, Al hold still" I say as I silence Martel, and take off Al's head, then flick the drop of blood onto his seal.

"Brother what did you do that fo…" Al starts before freezing mid-sentence, as the memories undoubtedly flow back to him. However, unlike in the anime, he recovered moments after the incident.

"Brother…I remember" Al says in a trance like voice.

"HOT DOG! I knew it'd work!" I shout as I leap into the air and kick my boots together.

"Memories, what does that mean?" Martel asks with confusion.

"It means, I can hold my own against more powerful enemies now, cause I can do this" Alphonse says as he claps his hands and creates a spike-less ball and chain flail and rushes toward Fu. After nodding to Martel, she rushed back to fight Fu as well.

**Greed**

As the masked man kept rushing me, I struggled to stay at pace with the warrior's speed and blows; if not for my ultimate shield, I might have already begun to take damage. It was true, he wasn't worth Edward's time, that's for sure, but this guy was giving me a run for my money, and despite what I was dishing out, this fighter just dodged them all and kept coming. Exactly my kind of fight, a challenge.

"So, your boss seems pretty pathetic, I mean he got caught off guard by a kid in a suit of armor; hell I was able to ambush him when we first met, yet your loser leader was manhandled even though he knew the kid was right in front of his face. Talk about lame" I laugh as I block another blow.

In an instant, she blindly swung at me, and I dodged with even less effort than before.

"Looks like your boss is a point of weakness; whenever I insult the little weasel, you crumble" I taunt, causing the warrior to blindly strike yet again.

"Ha, your countenance crumbles when your master is insulted, this is a most undesirable mindset to have when fighting an opponent such as myself!" I shout as I claw at the mask with a razor slash. Dodging my blows once again, I smirked, having realized how to get the fighter.

"I figured out your weakness, whenever I talk smack about your leader-" I begin, dodging a sloppy blow effortlessly.

"-Your movements become useless as you're blinded by rage!" I shout as I initiate an arm lock, causing the warrior to groan and struggle against my inhuman hold.

"You just can't keep your cool when your boss is spoken ill of, that is to be your downfall,; but for now, its time to see what you're face looks like pretty boy!" I shout as I slash the mask to bits, causing the warrior to gasp, and reveal that he was really…

"HOLY SHIT, YOU'RE A CHICK!" I scream as I realize all this time, I've been ungentlemanly and was smacking around a girl, A GIRL!

"(Snarl) You'll pay for mocking the young lord" she fumes as she pulls out another dagger and plunges it through my forehead during my lapse in attention from shock.

"(Gasp) No, I didn't mean to…oh no, I went too far, Master Ling will be furious" she quivers as she stands over my fallen body. I realized now would be the perfect time to scare her.

"Thought I'd die so easily huh?" I laugh as I begin to sit up, causing her to shriek in terror. Pulling the kunai out, I began to heal, and then crushed the knife into shrapnel with a graphene hand as I rose to my feet.

"Wha…what the hell are you?" she trembles, backing up a step.

"(Chuckle) You can ask Mr. Edward once you're all subdued and laid at his feet" I say dryly as I leap at her, both arms outstretched as I prepare to grab her in a neck hold.

**Alphonse Elric**

As I used my new alchemy in liberal proportions, I began to corner him, or so I thought, as he kept dodging me.

"You're very agile for an old man, I'm impressed" I compliment.

"And you're incredibly agile for 7 foot giant" he compliments back.

"Thanks" I say as I clap my hands and create a big wall around him, only to see him deftly jump over it.

"No, I mean its unnatural, and you emit no Ki, which is not possible unless-" he starts as he leaps toward me, and wedges the katana under my helmet just like Dolcetto had when I met him, popping it off.

"-You're hollow inside, I knew it! You're no man, you're a Kuǐlěi!" he shouts as he holds my helmet head.

"HEY! Give that back" I shout as I rush him and cradle it into my arms, then carefully put it back on.

"Strange behavior for a Kuǐlěi, but you're far from invincible!" he shouts as he leaps at me with a burst of speed, quickly vanishing from view.

"Whoa, where did he? AAAHHHH!" I shout as he hammers me from behind, sending me sprawling to the dirt.

"Now I'll put you out of your enslavement Kuǐlěi!" Fu shouts as he raises his sword.

WHUMP!

With a thud, old man Fu fell face-first into the dirt. The assailant, Roa, using his hammer lightly.

"You looked like you could use some assistance" Roa says as he offers a hand while holding Fu over his other shoulder.

"Thank you, I very well could have been done for, I appreciate the assist" I say with gratitude.

"Well then, shall we take him back to Mr. Edward?" Roa asks with a sarcastic smile.

"Yes, I wanna know how much brother really knows, cause this is getting a little creepy; its as if he saw our future somehow" I say as I begin to worry; perhaps his knowledge came at a great price. Following Roa back to the Meshi restaurant, I thought harder on what exactly Ed might have learned.

**Ling Yao**

"So Ling, are you gonna give up now?" Edward asks cockily.

"Never, my servants will easily crush you and your ragtag cohorts, they are trained Xingese Martial artists and sword masters. To think your friends stand a chance against some of the best fighters of my homeland is beyond-"

"Brother, we caught them!" the tall armored kid says cheerfully, causing me to stop mid-sentence. As I saw my two guards being carried like flour sacks by the natives, my jaw dropped.

"Wha…but…they're experts, you're not even familiar with Xingese fighting arts!" I proclaim, shocked at how fast my servants had been subdued.

"_They_ aren't, but my men and brother hardly need to know that stuff to fight your goons, now can we go somewhere private and "chat" Prince Ling?" he replies with a smirk.

"Make me shrimp!" I snap as I turn my back to him and attempt to run.

However, just as I prepared to jump, I found stone fists binding my ankles and rooting me to the street.

"Oh don't tempt me; now, the private talk?" Edward asks with a smirk as the restraints turn me around to face him.

"Why are you doing this, all I wanted to do was save my country, and you threaten our lives? I wasn't trying to deal any serious injuries to any of you" I argue, amazed at the disproportionate hostility we were receiving.

"Well then, perhaps I should just have you shot" Edward replies as the earth beneath me moves and sculptures appear, holding guns!

"Now then, will you talk with me peacefully?-"

(Guns cock)

"-Or will I have to shoot you?" Edward asks, narrowing his eyes.

I was about to reply, until I saw a glow from the stone on his necklace. Suddenly I felt a surge of realization; HE WAS WEARING A PHILOSOPHER'S STONE, THAT SNAKE!

"That's a very interesting gem on your person there Mr. Edward" I say cryptically, causing him to smile.

"Yeah you like? It's a gift from my master who trained me to kick ass like no other, want a demonstration?" he says arrogantly.

"No, what I want, IS THAT PHILOSOPHERS STONE!" I scream as I leap over the sculptures and snatch the necklace, shocking them all.

"You thieving bastard, YOU GIVE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW!" he screams.

"Not a chance, I want to be immortal, and I want to, no, need to be powerful enough to protect my country! And…why is it glowing?" I scream back, until I notice the jewel is glowing brightly in my hand. This caused Edward to gasp and rush toward me.

"Dude, seriously give it back, I think you upset it" he pleads, as I narrowly dodge his attempted grasp.

"Upset it? You act as if its-"

"You have been deemed worthy, and your request shall be granted" a voice whispers to me from the stone. Without warning, I felt myself being filled with energy, and I quickly began to pass out.

**Edward Elric**

The fool! He'd stolen my mystic gem, and now he had paid the price; as I felt his Ki dropping I knew Psyagon must have punished him for his transgressions of theft.

"No, DON'T KILL HIM!" I scream as I zip over and take the stone back. Upon reattaching the necklace around my neck, I saw Ling had…

Wait…no way, the stone…it hadn't killed him, it had…

"Oh crap, I hope he doesn't figure out how to use that till he's fully on our side" I say to myself as I realize the stone had not harmed him at all, it had just changed him into a Saiyan somehow.

Hang on, changed his DNA; somehow the stone had done a miracle for the foreigner!

"HOW THE HELL DID HE GET THIS THING TO WORK, HE'D ONLY JUST REALIZED I HAD IT, AND HE ONLY HELD IT A FEW SECONDS!" I bellow as I begin to bite on the thing and smack it like a wife beater.

"Um…brother, what should we do now?" Al asks nervously as he holds Fu. As I notice Greed holding Lan Fan, and the other chimeras and Envy standing there too, I sigh, stopping my desperate gnawing of the gem, and pick up Ling.

"We take them back to Garfiel's and wait for them to awaken" I say as I begin to walk away from the Meshi restaurant.

"HANG ON! You still gotta pay for the bill pal" the owner says as he grabs my hand and tries to halt me.

"Here, take it and leave us be, we have things to discuss" I say as I hand him a roll of cenz bills, 1000 in number, leaving him baffled.

"Keep the change!" I say as I wave to him, my group and I walking toward the shop of Atelier Garfiel.

**Fu**

As I came to, I groaned, feeling the back of my head ache with pain.

"Grandfather, where are we?" Lan Fan asks sleepily, apparently she had been defeated as well.

"I do not know, but we'll get out of here, I promise" I say as I look around and notice we're inside an automail shop.

"Ok ok, I'll get them for ya, geez, I said I was sorry my defense stone zapped you" the boy's voice says from behind the door. Swinging open dramatically, he stood there, fiddling with the stone on his necklace.

"Get out here, the metal restraints I used are gone now" he says with a sigh, as I feel my hands become lighter. Feeling uncertain, I suddenly felt more courage when I saw him enter the doorway.

"Young lord, you're alive! Did they harm you?" I shout as I rush to him and kneel, Lan Fan following.

"Oh no, far from it, they even gave me some more food; they're alright guys, we can talk civilly with them" Ling says with a smile. Feeling more at ease now, knowing master Ling trusted them, we stepped out into the room and saw Edward sitting there, smiling.

"2 hours, not bad, most folks stay out at least 10 when they get a good conk to the head" he says as he stands up.

"You talk awfully big for a diminutive dwarf" I retort, causing a vein to appear in his forehead for a moment, then vanish.

"I'd normally be insulted by that, but I wouldn't wanna spoil the surprise. Anyway, you're Fu, and the girl is Lan Fan, just like I thought" he says as he offers a handshake.

"What is this? You send your men after me, and brutally assault my granddaughter, and you expect us to be friends?" I snap, causing the boy to frown.

"Yes, he is, and I'm commanding you as the prince of the Yao clan, to keep your temper down Fu, and cooperate, because they've revealed they can assist us, in exchange for some Xingese knowledge that may be able to help them" master Ling says with a smiling yet serious face. Nodding in agreement, we sat down and waited to hear more.

"So, you're all from Xing, that's been established; we know who you are, so its time you knew about me and my friends" the boy says as he gestures an arm, and 5 people step into the room from the corner.

"This is the chimera gang; the girl is Martel, the guy with a lizard tail, Bido, the slick hair is Dolcetto, the big guy Roa, and their leader, Greed" Edward says, with a tall man with a fur covered vest smiling, causing my granddaughter to scream a little.

"That's the guy I fought, but he had a coating on his that could not be broken, and I buried a dagger in his forehead…he did not die, he isn't human!" she whimpers, causing my anger to flare up again.

"What the hell did you do to her you monster!" I scream, causing him to laugh.

"All I did was show off a little, its her own damn fault she's freaking out, I'm just special, a homunculus, that's all" he says with a laugh.

"Greed and Envy here are both homunculi, living philosopher's stones. The stones comprise their cores" Edward explains, as Greed opens his chest and shows off the glowing red stone.

"And to add a warning I was told; if we try to kidnap any of the good homunculi that are friends with Edward…he'll rip our arms off and have us sent back to Xing in giant fish bowls" Ling says, chuckling to contain his fear.

"Where is Envy?" I ask, curious to meet this second homunculus.

"He's busy, helping my friend test out the durability of a new automail limb she finished today. But I wanna know why you're not afraid of my men, even after they kicked your asses" the boy replies with a grin.

"Because we're loyal to the young lord Ling, and we have nothing to fear from a rude child like you" I spit, causing him to growl.

"Actually…there is a lot to fear of Edward, calm down please, for the sake of everything within a 10 square mile radius" Ling pleads as he rushes over and holds me back.

"What the hell are you talking about, why do you bow to people so far beneath you, they aren't even royalty, they're ordinary citizens!" I argue. Immediately, Ling did a surprising thing and clamped his hand over my mouth.

"Yeah, I agree, Ling shouldn't have to subject himself to taking orders from the likes of you commoners" Lan Fan adds in defense, causing Ling to clamp her mouth too.

"Will you shut up! There is a good reason I'm respecting him; the original plan I had was to do it just to make sure I got information from him. Now, I respect him because he is more than dangerous, if angered, he is a threat" Ling says as he sweats, confusing us both.

"How is he so frightening? Alchemy is not an all powerful art, just the same as Alkahestry. Both follow the laws of equivalent exchange, and have weaknesses and vulnerabilities that can be exploited in battle. I did so in combat with the armored boy earlier, so why is Edward different?" I inquire with exasperation as I take his hand off.

Sighing, Ling took his hand off Lan Fan's mouth too and sat in the chair.

"You remember that huge energy surge many people felt in Xing 4 weeks ago, and again a few days ago" Ling asks with a serious tone.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with this discussion?" I ask with curiosity, wondering why he was bringing that up.

"You're looking at the source of your overload" Edward says with a smile as he stands up.

After several seconds of silence, I finally regained the ability to talk after having been so thoroughly shocked by the claim.

"That's preposterous! We sensed something with the equivalent power of all the combined Ki put off by the Yao clan members, how could you, a mere child, be the source?" I retort, causing him to start laughing raucously.

"HA HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAAA! For people who claim to know Ki, you're really clueless; you can sense life energy, but yet you can't manipulate it?" he begins, as I feel his Ki begin to increase somehow.

"Well then, allow me to show you a small demonstration!" he shouts, as I notice a wind has begun to fill the room. Soon, a faint white aura surrounded him, and I realized, the wind was coming from him!

"Zǔxiān de lìliàng! (Translated from Chinese/Xingese: By the ancestors, the power)" I exclaim, as I realize that he really is the source.

"That's just a fraction, a tiny one, I can't use my full power or I could destroy the town just from powering up" he says as the wind dies down, the aura of power remaining.

"How powerful could he be? He's just glowing a little" Lan Fan scoffs.

"Allow me to prove my strength, here, try and cut my finger" Edward smirks as he charges the aura around his left index finger and holds it out.

"With pleasure, YA!" my granddaughter shouts as she whips out a kunai and swipes at the extended digit. I smiled at this, as I saw her blade zing ever closer toward his flesh, he would be shown up and need alchemy to reattach his pointer.

However, instead of cutting through his finger, the finger cut through the knife! The moment the two collided, the weapon sizzled and its end was removed, the tip of the kunai had been sliced clean off, with molten metal seeping off between separated pieces.

"No way, that's…-"

"Impossible? You'll soon find there is no such thing, I mean, you saw it happen. Your knife hit a thin barrier of pure life force energy, highly energized and active. It was like sticking your toy into a crematorium fire" Edward says as he picks up the metal shrapnel, holding the molten edge in his fingers like it was gourmet cheese!

"Hmmmm, you know what, I've never tasted molten steel before, perhaps I can try it now" he says with a smirk as he pops it in his mouth and begins to chew.

"Come on kid, now you're just showing off, plus that's gross, eating metal, you're acting like Gluttony" Greed groans, as we watch in horror.

"You see now why I'm afraid of him, he's crazy, and powerful, never a good combination!" Ling whispers.

"I HEARD THAT, I'M NOT CRAZY!" Edward snaps, as his entire body begins to surge with electric discharge.

"I'm, eccentric" he says huffily as he puts a hand on his chest and turns up his nose.

"You're out of character if you ask me" the armored boy says with a sigh.

"Hey Ed and Al, you might wanna get over here, there's a soldier here" a girl says with an urgent tone.

**Edward Elric**

As I heard Winry's voice, I realized that it had to be important if she stopped working on automail. Rushing to the door, I saw she wasn't kidding, and it was a face I knew.

"Fullmetal, its good to see you sir" Sergeant Denny Brosh says, with a smile.

"Oh hey Denny, nice to see you too, but why are you all the way down here in the south? Rush Valley sure is a long way from Central City" I reply, noticing a paper in his fist.

"I'm afraid I have a bit of bad news, this message came from Colonel Mustang, he's requesting you back in Central right away, all members of the military just received this message earlier today, I got here to tell you in person. I was on a military train using a special train line dedicated to high speeds using experimental fuel for a new kind of engine, so I could get down here within a half day instead of several days, then I ran to you all the way from the station, its that urgent" he pants as he hands me the transcript. Taking it from him, I opened it up, and felt my veins run cold.

"Attention all military personnel, it has been verified that Scar has returned to Central. Three casualties have been reported, all confirmed as State Alchemists. According to eyewitness reports, he is described as an Ishvalan, with an X-shaped scar on his forehead, other identifiable markings include a tattoo on his right arm. Be advised that he is highly dangerous, able to dodge gun fire even at close range, and can destroy most materials with his right arm through mere physical contact using some form of alchemy. All non-combat oriented State Alchemists are hereby warned that he does not distinguish between alchemists, and will kill anyone who gets in the way of targets he picks out. We will do all we can to take down this murderer, and bring him to justice. Direct from the office of the Führer, King Bradley" I read outloud, causing Al to gasp.

"Brother…the guy who tried to kill us, he's-"

"Back, and killing more innocent lives" I say as I finish Al's sentence, and clench my fists, my aura firing up once more, this time a bright blue.

"Whoa, I can feel his power, its not human, its…something more, what is he?" Fu comments from behind me, my mind filled with so much rage I can barely hear his words.

I could hear those words he used on me and Al back in the alley all those weeks ago, just replaying in my head, as he said, "As long as there are creators like you in the world, there must also be destroyers"

As my rage built, I felt my control slipping, and I lost it.

"That's it, I'm going to Central now, Winry, I'll be bringing you back a trophy before sundown" I say as I kiss her cheek and begin to revert to my natural Saiyan form, as the alchemic discharge coats my form. Hearing the shocked awe coming from the Xingese visitors, I remained stonewalled, and upon completing my transformation, I shot straight through the roof, and began to fly straight to Central City, my aura blazing behind me.


	23. Scar's Beatdown!

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 23: Scar's Beatdown!**

**Alphonse Elric**

As brother vanished into the sky toward the north, I sighed, realizing I'd have to tell Winry about the secret he told me, since I knew he was about to act on it.

"Al…why is Ed so fired up, and why did he look like…he was about to…what's going on, why did he fly off? Scar is out there, why would he risk his life-"

"Winry, you know damn well nothing on our planet can harm Edward now, he's gone to…(Sigh) Winry, you remember how your parents died in the Ishvalan Civil War?" I reply, cutting her off, and causing her to walk up to me, looking into my eyes with a worried expression.

"Yes, but what does that have to do with Scar?" she replies, I could hear a whimper gathering back in her throat.

"Winry…it was him, Scar…killed your parents, they were killed by one of the very people they saved" I answer solemnly, causing her to gasp.

"You mean…he's the man…who killed them?" she says as tears begin to form.

Lowering my head, I gave her the signal that she wasn't wrong.

"My parents…(voice becomes hoarse) he killed them?" she repeats with a hushed tone. I quickly went over and knelt down to hug her.

"But…why, why would he kill the people who saved his life? It doesn't make any sense" she mumbles as I stroke her head comfortingly.

"They were my mom and dad…what did they ever do to him? They were innocent, they were selfless…they were heroes, how could that man do something so evil?" she whimpers, I then remembered I had to warn everyone about what this event could cause if Brother was allowed to do what he had cooked up in his enraged heart.

"Everyone, we have a problem, my brother is planning to kill the man who murdered our friend Winry's parents" I announce, causing all of them to look at me funny.

"So, why is that bad? It means one less monster in the world, I think that's a good thing" Ling says with a serious face.

"No, its not right, this kind of revenge is wrong, that is the main reason he cant be allowed to do it, but there's more. If it was a normal man doing this, I wouldn't be so worried; but my brother is no longer a mere man, he's an no longer a mere human, but an alien" I begin, causing Ling and his friends to look at me funnily.

"You mean he's not really a legal Amestrian citizen?" Lan Fan remarks with curiosity.

"No, not an illegal alien, I mean an extraterrestrial, a being from another world beyond Earth. Biologically, he's no longer human, he's a member of a race known as a Saiyan, a species that in comparison, is infinitely more powerful than human or homunculi" I continue, causing Ling to walk over and give me a skeptical look.

"Hang on, are you kidding me? He seemed more like a chimera than a star faring simian. Besides, we know he was born here, my servants obtained government documents confirming his birth in Resembool weeks ago. So how could he be from another planet, and this is assuming I believe you when you say there are worlds like ours out there among the stars that can be lived upon even, can you explain your reasoning more clearly?" Ling says with a dour look on his face.

"You saw that tail, that's a signature physical characteristic of their race, they have monkey like tails. But that's not the proof that he is alien. You said you can feel Ki right, every biological creature emits life force energy right?" I continue, causing Fu to step forward.

"I did notice earlier that his energy had a rather…tremendous presence, momentarily. For a brief instant, I thought I saw…something deeper, but it was somehow scrambled, fuzzy, as though held back by a shield, so I couldn't gauge it accurately" the old man says with a solemn tone, causing me to realize that by explaining a little to him, he could grasp the severity of this issue, then relay it to Ling and Lan Fan in a way they'd understand.

"Fu, you must have almost gotten a glimpse of my brothers true power, or at least the true power of his base form, can you describe what you felt?" I ask, raising my voice a little to indicate how important it was to know what he'd sensed.

"Base Form?" he remarks, causing me to groan.

"There isn't time to explain everything about my brother now, but I promise it will all be revealed in due time, for now, focus, can you describe what you felt in that moment please?" I shout, causing him to nod and resume thinking.

"Well, it was like, a barrier, something to hold something back, as though he was suppressing…(Gasp)…please don't tell me…that he was somehow…Alphonse…was he…was he holding back his own Ki, making himself seem weak and limiting his available energy?" Fu whispers, causing Ling and Lan Fan to gasp as they realize the seriousness of the situation now.

"Yes, he has to, otherwise just being near him could be hazardous; apart from the energy supercharging every part of his body, every muscle, tendon, fiber, and nerve, when angry, he cannot hold it all in without surrounding his physical form in an energy barrier, excess energy leaks from every pore, forming that aura you saw. Until he learns to more efficiently make his power passively active, including when angered, he releases it all around him, a continual dispersal of pure Ki leaks from every surface of his being, like a fire straight from his core. The further he powers up, that larger the amount of energy that seeps out becomes; eventually, it increases to a point where he emits so much raw power, that anything nearby begins to crumble and break apart, because his Ki disrupts the atomic and molecular bonds of nearby matter. In short, after a certain point, he actually atomizes anything that comes too close if he isn't keeping his strength in check, and that radius of danger increases the more power he draws out until he either regains control, or lowers his Ki" I explain, causing Greed and the chimeras to gasp too, as they had not heard such a detailed warning of what Edward's power is truly like before now.

"So the angrier he gets, the more dangerous he is because he can't remember to restrain his own might?" Lan Fan says hoarsely.

"Meaning that right now, he's slowly turning into a walking disaster, and killing that man could…(screams) how far is Central by train!" Fu shouts, causing Winry to gasp as she undoubtedly had a flash back of Edward when he was fueled by blood lust 4 weeks ago, causing the first incident in Central City.

"Guys…we can't let him kill Scar, his control…it could weaken, he could slip, he'd destroy everything that makes him angry, and there's a lot that does. Quick, someone tell me the fastest way to Central!" Winry screams, causing Denny to snap out of his horror induced trance, and speak up.

"Well passenger trains take around 12 hours or so to get from Rush Valley to Central, but the one I was on only takes about 2 to 3 depending on conditions, so if I could get clearance for all of you, we could conceivably be there before 4 PM" the sergeant replies nervously, hoping he had given a good answer.

"That's not fast enough, brother can move at speeds faster than light if he wants, any place on the planet is but a blink away for him. But while the plane is fast enough, its too conspicuous, we'd blow our illusion of being in the dark about Father and his plans if we use it" I reply, causing Denny to gain a puzzled look.

"Damn it! Isn't there a faster way to travel without relying on Ed?" Winry yells with despair.

"Of course there is, all you have to do is whisper to the shadows" the all too familiar eerie tone of Pride states as his voice echoes through the room.

"Pride, where are you?" I ask as I look around the room for the shadow he was residing in.

"Over here stupid, my brother found me first and decided to bring me here with him" Envy states as he steps out of the shadow portal forming behind Greed, in his disguise similar to Fu.

"What the, who is that, and why does he look so much like me?" the Xingese fighter asks accusatively.

"Relax, I'm a shape-shifter, its my homunculi power, the shadow is our oldest brother, Pride, his container will be here in a moment" Envy says calmly as the vessel shaped of Selim Bradley slowly rises from the blackness like a turtle from a pond. Suddenly, that gave me an idea.

"Pride, is it possible…that you can transport other people through your shadow too?" I shout with a frantic tone, hoping my plan was possible.

"Of course, I mean I did just carry Envy through it" his container replies casually.

"Can you take all of us?" Winry adds, causing him to frown.

"That I'm not sure of; I've never tried to do mass transport, the most I've carried at one time are two passengers" he starts.

Giving a sudden grin, he continued, "But I'm quite powerful, I'm sure I could easily transport over a dozen without hurting them"

"Then could you get all of us to Central now please?" Winry pleads, causing him to smile bigger.

"Of course, just give me a moment to compose myself, prepping multiple physical forms for shadow phasing isn't a cakewalk" he replies cheerfully.

"Ok, then do that while I go tell Garfiel that I have an emergency I must attend to" Winry shouts as she stands up and rushes into the main shop area.

"Well, she certainly is fired up, why are we going to Central if I may ask?" Pride remarks as his shadows pull out from behind him and form the menacing array of tentacles and mouths, causing Lan Fan to scream in terror, and the chimeras to whimper.

"Will you please tone it down, your true form is frightening to most people Pride" I rebuke, causing him to sigh.

"Sorry, It was part of prepping myself for the shadow phasing I'm about to undergo, I needed to stretch is all" he replies apologetically as his shadow form recedes back into a blank black circle beneath his feet.

"Thank you, and to answer your question, its Edward, he heard about Scar, and he's going to kill him" I explain, causing him to gulp with fear.

"Oh that's bad, very bad indeed. We saw his power used in the desert all the way from Eastern Command, and I'm sure that wasn't very much in comparison to his true strength. You're right, we have to leave immediately and prevent a real disaster" Pride yells, his voice becoming manic and panicky.

"Ok, I'm ready, lets go, we have to stop Ed" Winry says as she rushes back over to me. Promptly, Pride began to slowly suck us down into the portal, and I could feel the darkness creeping up on me as we sunk deeper into the black void. Whimpering, many of the other passengers held close to others, Ling however observed this with awe, his eyes wide with wonder. Soon, we all disappeared into the shadows with Pride, the world above us vanishing from view.

**Scar**

As I carved a path of destruction through Central, I gazed upon the afternoon sun cast by Ishvala, wondering why he kept the one alchemist I was most eager to kill from me, the one who got away. It did not matter, knowing what he was like from the intel Yoki had given me, he would come if I kept destroying long enough. Flexing my right arm, I slammed the ground again, making sure to send the message to all the inhabitants…I wanted the boy, and he would pay in blood like all the other state alchemists.

"Sir, why do I have to be so close to the action?" the whiny man mentioned formerly says from the nearby alley as I destroy another section of street.

"You're well aware that I intend cause much destruction. I need you to keep the girl safe" I reply, causing him to sigh.

"Oh will you stop patronizing me? We both know it's the other way around, she proved that when she kicked my ass for insulting her little cat thing on the way here last week" the balding Yoki replies tearfully.

"For the last time, her name is Xiao-Mei, and she's a panda who's growth was stunted from birth" May remarks bitterly.

"Enough, just stay out of site unless there is an emergency" I command, causing them to shut up.

"Scar!" a familiar duo of voices scream. Turning to face them, I saw the Strong Arm Alchemist, and the most infamous of all, the Flame Alchemist, headed toward me with a full armored battalion arriving from up the street.

"You will pay for the lives of my brothers you took Scar!" the tall one shouts as he disrobes his jacket and flexes stupidly.

"Big talk, we'll see if you can do it" I retort, causing him to slam the ground and send a wave of spikes toward me. I effortlessly broke them with my destruction arm, and charged him, but like before, he dodged my arm.

"I know your tricks, all I have to do is avoid your right arm, and I can fight you without fear" Alex yells confidently as he sends another wave of spikes toward me. After dodging these, I found the giant had anticipated my trajectory, and now sprung up on me with a choke hold around my neck, restraining my right arm at the socket, immobilizing my most powerful weapon.

"You can't last forever Scar, I'm stronger than you, I just have to avoid your blows, keep you from retreating, and whittle you down and you're beaten. What's more, even if you do manage to kill me, the time you waste fighting off my blows gives Colonel Mustang the opportunity he needs to set up an oxygen field al around you, and then he can send you straight to oblivion with a single snap!" he roars as he squeezes on my right arm, pinching the brachial plexus and temporarily paralyzing it.

"Alright, get his legs too Armstrong, I'm ready to reduce this bastard to a pile of ashes" Roy says with a satisfied smile. Realizing that I would be burnt to death in a matter of moments unless I acted quickly, I went against the codes of honor and used my leg to swing back and strike Alex in his groin.

"(Groan) There goes the little armstrongs (wheezy moan)" he pants as he slumps off me, releasing his choke hold and allowing me to get free.

"Its too late now, this whole area is saturated with oxygen, and I have a burn specialist team on standby to get Alex out of there once I've disabled you enough, then I'll send you straight to hell where you belong you monster" Roy says as he holds a hand ready, preparing to snap his fingers.

"No, I'M SENDING HIM TO HELL MYSELF!" a booming voice bellows after a sharp cracking noise resounds, the entire city shaking from its volume.

"What was that?" I remark as I look around, trying to find the source.

"A sonic boom, something was traveling faster than sound, and its close" Alex remarks weakly as he recovers from my dirty move.

"Hawkeye, did that voice originate from where I thought I heard it?" Roy asks worriedly, causing the woman who stood by him to gulp and nod.

"SCARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR, YOU'RE MINE YOU FUCKING SON OF A BITCHHHHHHHHHHH!" the voice roars from straight above us, even louder this time, the ground beneath my feet cracking from the volume, my ears needing to be covered to lessen the pain as I reached for my head. Suddenly, I heard Roy gasp, then turned to see him looking up.

"Its…him…the monster; EVERYONE FALL BACK, I REPEAT, FALL BACK, IT'S THE MONSTER WHO ALMOST KILLED THE FüHRER!" he screams with fear, his other soldiers save the girl also screaming with terror as they scramble out away from the street in a disorganized retreat. I was curious as to what could make them be so afraid, as far as I knew, I was the most dangerous thing in the city at the moment.

Then, with a noise like a whistling shell, something huge slammed down from the sky and into the pavement, causing the ground to form a huge wave that radiated out from impact like a tsunami, upturning buildings for several dozen blocks like pancake, and nearly flipping me off my feet too.

**Edward Elric**

After my impact landing, I frowned, realizing my attempted dramatic attack hadn't harmed him at all. Then I smiled, realizing it didn't matter if this try was a failure, from now on he was my bitch, I'd play with him to show the bastard just how hopeless his power was to mine now, then tear his heart out and present it to Winry and end her torment, she would have her justice.

"Who are you?" Scar remarks, unimpressed by my entrance somehow.

"Me, I'm your executioner" I grin as I use the formulas in my head and begin to raise a wall of adamantium around us for 30 blocks, just to be safe.

"Glad I caught you in the deserted slums of town, that means I can cut loose a little" I state as I crack my knuckles.

"Who are you, and how do you know my name?" he continues, apparently holding down his fear.

"What, you don't recognize me?" I taunt, causing him to frown even more, if that was even possible.

"Your face seems vaguely familiar, but I don't know you" Scar says with a bored expression.

"Really, you mean to tell me nothing about my appearance rings a bell?" I groan, surprised that someone as aware as Scar would be unable to connect the dots.

**May Chang**

A few minutes ago, a massive chi source had entered the area, and it appeared from out of nowhere. However, after the crash, I knew I had to go find him. As I heard rumbling, I then found huge silver walls rising up all around us, hundreds of feet tall, obviously the work of alchemy.

"Well destroyer, perhaps I should show you my original form, that I had when we first met and destroyed my arm!" a very manly voice with tremendous presence shouts up ahead. As I heard alchemic discharge, I followed the noise, till I rounded a corner and found Scar standing off with…a little kid?

"Now do you recognize me?" the kid grins as he folds his arms.

"Edward Elric…how did you do that?" Scar asks with shock.

"Its a long story, but I know everything now, and I'm ready to kick your ass, then grill it and feed it to Gluttony for a snack, and then the rest of you! All except the heart, which I will be presenting to my girl Winry as proof that I avenged the death of his parents" the boy says angrily.

"Mr. Scar!" I shout as I leap over and take the boy by surprise, and kick him in the head straight into a face plant with the ground, then leapt over to defend my master.

"Mr. Scar, who is this boy?" I ask as I fall into a battle stance with Xiao-Mei.

"The Fullmetal Alchemist" Scar replies as he points to the area around us.

"Huh…he's not really here is he?" I ask as I pan around to try and find the tall man of my dreams.

"I'm telling you, that boy is the Fullmetal Alchemist" he replies as he points at the short kid.

Instantly, I felt my hopes come crashing down, as I gasped several times.

"HOW DARE YOU TOY WITH THE FEELINGS OF A MAIDEN YOU HUMAN MICROBE!" I scream, hurt that the great Edward Elric I'd heard tales of in Youswell, was almost as small as me.

"WHAT'D YOU CALL ME SHORT STACK!" he screams back, gritting his teeth, but then suddenly stopping cold, and switched straight to full-blown laughter.

"HA HA HA! DAMN, I can't believe I almost forgot that that's not true anymore, I' am tall now" he laughs, causing me to feel a great deal of confusion; how could he be tall if he was short?

"I've gotta remember that this body is just a disguise nowadays, gimme a second" he chuckles as he holds up a finger while holding a hand over his face.

Suddenly, alchemic discharges began to spring up all around him, and he began to change.

First, the muscles bulged out, his stomach and chest expanded with abs and pectoral mass, his arms and legs quickly following. His hair became a little longer, but was still contained by his ponytail braid.

Then, the unthinkable happened, he started to get taller, and taller! Until finally, he was bigger than Mr. Scar!

"Heh, what do you think of me now tiny? This is my true form" he asks confidently as he removes his hand from his face.

My mouth instantly began to drool, as I saw the embodiment of my fantasy and more, made real before my very eyes; such finely toned and perfect features, as though chiseled straight out of a perfect marble slab. He even had the long cowlick strand coming from his bangs!

"Um…little girl, you're drooling" he states, though I barely heard him, as I was busy adoring this perfect specimen of heroism and manliness.

Squealing with delight, I began to gush where I stood; I had finally found the perfect man!

"EDWARD ELRIC, HE'S DREAMIER THAN I IMAGNED!" I shout as I dance in place and hold my cheeks.

"Oooooook; anyways, Scar, its time for you to answer for your crimes" Edward says as he directs his gaze to Mr. Scar.

"What, what do you mean, what crimes?" I ask Edward, surprised to hear such accusations.

"This guy is a mass murderer, he's wanted for the murder of over 10 state alchemists, most not even connected to the Ishvalan War, as well as a little girl and her pet dog. And back during the war, he even killed the very doctors who saved his life!" Edward says angrily.

I suddenly felt myself ashamed; I had allied myself…with a murderer of innocent lives.

"Scar…how could you do those things?" I ask with anger as I begin to cry, embarrassed that I could have ever been loyal to him.

"They are the real abominations, monsters who perverse the name of the great god Ishvala, the true creator of all things, and they are the ones who slaughtered my countrymen, and my brother" Scar replies coldly.

"So you think that makes it ok to kill innocent people, people who had nothing to do with your war!" I scream, as I stand beside Edward hold his leg.

"I do the work of Ishvala, I will cleanse this world of the blasphemous alchemists who dare to defile and twist creation with their dark science, and they shall all feel my wrath!" he states angrily.

"Not anymore you won't" Edward says firmly as he steps forward, as I watched in amazement at how calm he was.

**Edward Elric**

As I stood my ground firmly before him, I hoped my intimidating appearance would make Scar run in terror, but that was hoping for a bit much, he was an Ishvalan after all.

"Then what are you here for, to fight me?" Scar asks with a serious tone.

Remembering a good pre-ass kicking one-liner used by my master's brother against that Super Buu, I decided I'd rip it off just to see how cool it sounded.

"Fight you? No…I wanna kill you" I say coldly as I give a confident smirk, causing Scar to suddenly show fear on his face. Undoubtedly, he'd seen the look in my eyes, the rage beneath my still calm countenance; and as I had predicted, it sounded so badass as it rolled off the tongue.

Quicker than the blink of an eye, I kneed Scar in the stomach, then followed up with an elbow to his back, then rose my other knee up to catch his fall and shoot him into the air like a piston, where I promptly followed and delivered an uppercut that sent him even higher. To finish off my first wave, I then sped behind his shooting body, and used a backhand fist to smack him back toward the ground, where he impacted with a small crater. I swear, so many of those sound tracks by that Bruce Faulconer fellow would fit so perfectly for this part of my life, but one I that would best fit this exact moment was a toss up between the Gohan Fights Frieza, Ginyu Transformation, or the Super Buu theme tracks.

"So what did you think of my parlor trick demonstration? That's me not even bothering to try and using a fraction of my new power, you aren't worth even a little bit of effort, I'm that far beyond you now" I say coldly, as I hear Scar groan and begin to get up, but fails due to the injuries.

"May, heal him" I command, causing the girl to gasp.

"Wait, how did you know my-"

"I said heal him, the man wants to die fighting, I will grant him that honor, as for your question I'll answer it another time, I promise, for now repair his wounds so he can move again" I shout, causing her to nod and rush to his side. Dropping her series of kunai knives on the ground, she used her alkahestry to begin healing his weakened body. After a tedious 3 minutes, she'd restored him to full health, or at least it appeared that way.

Unfortunately, Scar suddenly stumbled, and I realized she had not been able to heal all his injuries.

"(Groan) I thought you knew how to heal wounds" I complain, as I see Scar still struggling to stand.

"Forgive me, but I'm not a medical expert. I can repair broken bones and most cuts, but I can't fix internal organ damage, I'm not that familiar with how to heal those, I mostly specialize in chi pathways" she apologizes as she bows.

"Then move aside, I'll do it myself" I say gruffly as I stomp over toward him and roughly feel around for injured spots with a combination of my enhanced saiyan senses and Ki detection.

"Aha, there were are: severely bruised parts include the liver, pancreas, kidneys, spleen, gallbladder, stomach, intestines, lungs, _and spinal damage_? DAMN! I'm surprised you aren't at least paralyzed. Alright, lets fix you up so we can continue" I say with a derisive laugh, then proceed to use my medical alchemy knowledge with some supplemental Ki energy to fuel it, healing him back to full health. Upon realizing he was back to full strength, he looked at me with disbelief, undoubtedly thinking it was an act of kindness.

"Why did you not finish me off while I was weakened?" he says with veiled shock.

"Because it's boring and unfair to kill an honorable fighter when he's down and defenseless, along with the fact that you do deserve a chance to fight back" I explain, causing him to a smile a little for some reason.

"But mostly…-" I begin, pushing him down on his ass like a bully would to a small child, then bending down to look him in the eyes with a furious scowl.

"-I want to hear you scream" I whisper fiercely, causing his eyes to go wide with fear.

Immediately after finishing my chilling statement, I smacked him full across the face like an asshole husband would do to abuse his wife, sending his body hurtling across the street and straight into an alley down at the end of the road.

"OWWWWWWWW! Whoever did that, it really hurt!" a whiny voice screams. The culprit was unmistakably Yoki, the man who had been pretty much running Youswell like a tyrant. Zipping over to where Scar had landed, I couldn't help but laugh.

Scar had landed butt first, across Yoki's face!

"HA HA HA! Oh hello there uh…who are you?" I ask, pretending I didn't know or care about him as the anime had depicted.

"Its Yoki! You should know that you bast…(Screams like a girl) THE MONSTER!" he shrieks, jumping out from under Scar and cowering behind a dumpster.

"Yoki, its me, Edward, I'm the alleged monster" I say as I point to my facial features, prompting Yoki to scream even more loudly and attempt to run away. Before he even got half a foot, I had him by the seat of his pants, which made him scream louder still and begin to cry and beg for his life.

"Yoki, relax, I'm not gonna kill you; your acts of greed in Youswell are nothing to sweat compared to Scar's murderous rampage, plus I understand you better now, so chill" I state as I bring his face into mine as I held his pants.

"(Whimpering and blubbering) Ohmy, whothe, whythe, whadid, ahhhhh" he sobs softly as his eye waterfall reduces to soft leaking weeps.

"Now, if I put you down, will you promise to not scream or break into a panic, and just go find an alley out of the way in this closed off area to stay safe in while I kill Scar?" I ask calmly, causing his tear flow to lessen more as he nodded.

"Ok, now get the hell out of here, things are gonna get ugly pretty fast once you've reached safet…-" I start, till I notice Scar is no longer lying on the ground, and was gone.

"WHERE THE HELL DID THAT RAT BASTARD CRAWL OFF TO!" I bellow, causing Yoki to shriek and start running for his life out into the street.

"Right here" the Ishvalan says from behind me. Just as I turned around to face him, he put his right hand on my face. I could have easily dodged, deflected, or even dismembered his arm to prevent the attack, but I felt it was time to show him how invincible I was in comparison.

"I'll give you a moment to pray to god" Scar says as he prepares to use his destruction technique.

"Go ahead, see what happens this time Ishvalan" I say with a confident smirk.

**Scar**

Surprising as it was to see him acting so calm, even after having experienced my destruction move through his automail arm nerves back when we first fought, I chalked it down as arrogance, despite his new level of speed and power, he was but a man of flesh and blood, I would destroy him as easily as any other.

"Die you abhorrent alchemist!" I scream as I activate the arrays on my arm and discharge the energy into him in preparation to destroy his flesh and bone.

However, as the blue discharges of power surged around him, nothing happened!

"What the hell, how are you still alive, much less unharmed, I know the composition of the human body, and you're just a man!" I shout.

However, the boy just chuckled, then turned around to face me with an insane grin on his face.

"Well, you know that old saying, its wrong-" he begins as he stares at me with glowing…glowing blue eyes!

"Not all men, ARE CREATED EQUAL!" he screams, causing a wind to come from nowhere, then focus on me, blowing my body straight up the street, right back to where he'd first hit me, easily over 16 blocks away. How was he so powerful, that he was able to defy the very laws of the world? It just didn't make sense, if he was human, he was flesh, and flesh is made of carbon, which should make him easy to destroy.

And yet…when I had touched him, I'd felt something strange, like thick clothing covering his skin, thicker than just the jacket he wore.

"Wondering how I did it, how I made your little destruction move suffer such an epic fail?" he asks arrogantly, smirking the whole time. Groaning as I got up, I shook off my pain and reached for him again, this time putting my hand on his face as I discharged the energy once more.

But as before, nothing happened!

"Let me show you why" he says from behind my grasp as he raises his right hand up, noticing that his eyes were back to gold once again and no longer glowing.

Suddenly, there was a soft white light surrounding his skin, like a film of water, but more pronounced; what the fuck had he done with alchemy now that made him shine with light?

"Quit thinking you know what this power is! I bet you think its some kind of alchemy, don't you?" Edward chastises, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Well its not, its something far more powerful, something as ancient as life itself" the boy says as he grabs my hand and removes it forcefully, crushing the bones painfully, the pressure increasing with each moment he held on. Then after a seconds, he pushed me away several feet, knocking me onto my rear in the process, leaving me staring up at him in shock.

"Let me give a much _clearer_ demonstration" he says with a dark voice as his hair begins to float against gravity, and a blue outline of energy begins to cover his skin, becoming brighter by the second.

The next thing I sensed, was my chest being impacted by a fist, and my body leaving the ground.

In another moment's passing, he was on me, grappling my neck with one hand, and whipping me even higher! Then with a series of kicks, each vaulting me to a greater altitude, I was thrust above the clouds, and I saw a field of white. Then, with a great choking grip, he began to strangle me as he held me by my throat.

"Take a good look Scar, I've taken you beyond the mist, this is as close as you'll get to that paradise you believe in, cause in a moment, you'll be spiraling into the dirt, and after that, well…-" he says teasingly, as he lets go, the wind rushing past my ears at a speed I never thought possible.

"-I'll tell ya when we meet again on the ground!" he laughs as I keep falling, and I fell completely beneath the cloud cover. Now it had been over half a minute of dropping, and still I fell further; how far had he carried me, in fact, how could he fly at all, that shouldn't be possible, humans aren't able to fly!

As I flipped myself around, I saw the ground was fast approaching, and I knew then, at this speed I would die the moment I hit.

But just before I could become a bloody smear, I became surrounded by a barrier of gold, and my fall stopped instantly and painlessly.

"Nice move huh? Its called Ki Barrier, and its capable of all kinds of stuff" Edward's voice says from behind me. Moments later, he casually stepped into my field of vision from above, floating upside down in mid-air.

In that instant, I realized something…something horrifying.

"You…you're not human, you're not human anymore…" I say shakily, knowing the look in his eyes, while that of Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, was also the look of something primal, and ancient, something powerful and unstoppable, something…inhuman. All he did was smirk smugly as he slowly turned himself right side up, and continued to float there.

"Just what are you? (Panting) WHAT IN THE NAME OF ISHVALA ARE YOU!" I bellow, now both angry and afraid from the fact that he wouldn't even tell me.

"Figured it out finally? About time" he sighs as he lowers back onto the ground, the pavement forming a half sphere that deepened as he got closer to it, a crater having formed by the time he touched the street. Then he walked up to me and touched the golden sphere with a fingertip, and the whole thing dissolved in a blink, causing gravity to roughly drop me face first onto the ground with a thud.

"You're right, I'm no longer human" he says as yellow pelt around his waist begins to mo…wait, pelts don't move, it was a blonde tail!

"I've far surpassed being a mere man, I'm more than human, I'm a member of the most powerful mortal race in all of existence, the Saiyans. My accident back over 4 weeks ago provided a most unprecedented opportunity. Instead of dying as I should have, I was taken into another realm, with as many differences as there were similarities. Their world was at peace, and had been for decades, their people open and friendly, with heroes wielding power unlike anything we ever imagined. Their finest warrior, Psyagon, he even taught me personally how to obtain this great power I now use against monsters like you to protect the innocent who cannot protect themselves. I' am Edward Elric, the Saiyan Alchemist!" he explains as he picks me up roughly by my neck again, choking me once more.

"You who have taken everything from so many, all they once held precious and dear, stolen from them as they died by your hand. You failed to foresee the consequences of your actions, and maliciously slaughtered innocent lives, justifying their murder to others and yourself in the name of your imaginary deity, all because you believe this moron's divine word is that alchemists are abominations!" he says angrily, as he holds his right hand to my face, a large red sphere that crackled with electricity and power, glowing in his palm inches from my eyes.

"And now, I'm gonna send you straight to oblivion where you belong" Edward states coldly as the orb grows brighter, pulsating wildly, causing me to gasp and squirm, desperately trying to destroy his arm with my destruction move, but to no avail.

"Good bye Scar, FOREVER!" he roars as he drops me and holds the orb before my body, its size growing ever larger in preparation for firing at point-blank range.

"BROTHER, STOP!" the armor boy Alphonse screams as he suddenly appears from behind and kicks Edward's hand, causing the orb to fire into the sky, where it detonated with a blinding flash that outshone the sun, casting a crimson glow across the land.


	24. Who You Really Are

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 24: Who You Really Are**

**Alphonse Elric**

As I stood over Scar, I panted, and began to shake. "Man, that was too close!" I whimper, surprised I wasn't atomized from being so close to brother.

"ALPHONSE, WHAT THE FUCKING HELL, ARE YOU CRAZY!" Edward screams as he gets up in my face.

"Brother, I had to, I mean…you were about to…-"

"Yeah, I know, that's the plan, and you're ruining it" he cuts bitterly, looking past me to Scar, who was scared out of his mind.

"By the way, how the hell did you get here? I know you could make a pillar over the wall, but Rush Valley is hundreds of miles away, we're talking over a half day to get here by train" Edward says with disbelief.

"I brought him, and your other friends, just in time too it seems" Pride's voice says from behind us.

"Pride, YOU DID THIS?" Ed screams angrily.

"A "Thank you for the quick travel fare I provided for your pals so they could come knock some sense into your thick skull" would be appreciated" Pride replies spitefully.

"OHHHHHHHH, don't you get fresh with me Pride! You're talking to the guy who can destroy planets with his pinky, lets not forget that smartass, you don't wanna throw down with me do you?" Edward shouts as he rolls up a sleeve and grins, forming a fist.

"Will you muscle headed dopes stop arguing!" Winry screams angrily, causing Ed to freeze up surprisingly.

"(Stammering) Whadidja…WINRY, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE!" Ed bellows angrily.

"I'm here to talk to you Edward you dummy" Winry replies with exasperation.

"Yeah I know, but as you can see, I'm kinda busy trying to kill Scar, now get out of the way and we'll talk later" Edward says as he begins to form a death beam on his finger, aiming it straight at Scar's forehead, who was now propped up on his elbows and looking at Edward with horror.

"No, Ed, stop! That's what I'm here to talk about, to prevent you from killing Scar" Winry shouts, grabbing hold of his right arm before he can fire the beam.

**Edward Elric**

As Winry grabbed my arm and spoke, I felt my throat close up in astonishment and bafflement, causing the Ki blast to die on my fingertips.

"Pre-pre-pre-PREVENT ME FROM DOING WHAT!" I scream with shock, still unsure if I'd heard my girlfriend's answer correctly.

"Yeah, you heard me right, I'm here to stop you from killing Scar" she says firmly.

"Winry, don't you know who this guy is? This is Scar, he's the one who!-"

"I know Ed" she replies quietly, shutting me up in an instant.

"Y-You know?" I choke, still unsure if I was hearing her correctly, her nod gave me affirmation that I was right.

"How? That was one of the few secrets I'd kept from you, despite having learned it, I thought it'd be best to reveal to you once he was brought to justice" I say as I look over to Scar, who was still pinned where he lay with fear, looking at me in horror.

"You call this justice?" Winry says quietly, her head lowered.

Without warning, she slapped me across the right side of my face angrily.

"THIS ISN'T JUSTICE EDWARD, IT'S REVENGE, HATEFUL, BURNING REVENGE THAT CONSUMES, YOU'RE NO DIFFERENT THAN SCAR RIGHT NOW!" she screams indignantly.

"I' am nothing like Scar, don't you dare compare me to that monster" I say through gritted teeth, trying to hold back my anger at being insulted in such a way.

"I'm not comparing, I'm stating facts; you're about to vaporize a helpless man who accidentally killed my parents in a bout of medically induced insanity years ago. Right now, the real monster here is you Edward!" Winry shouts.

I couldn't believe my ears; she was defending the son of a bitch! That pushed me over the edge; to hear my lover defend such a psychopath was too much. I could feel my Ki rising again, surging, spilling over.

"Uh…everyone, Mr. Elric's power is-"

"No need to tell us twice, Lan Fan, Fu, get your asses in gear, we gotta move!" the voices of Ling and May comment from far off, my rage clouding my other senses.

"Ed, dude, just chill ok?" Envy's voice pleads.

"Brother, its me, Alphonse, listen please, you need to calm down, calm-"

"RAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I bellow, causing a massive Kiai to surge through the area and whip up a pressure wave that tore up the land like a tidal wave, as if a nuclear weapon had been detonated where I stood. In moments, everything that wasn't loose matter within 100 feet of me, became consumed by the Kiai aura burst that had emitted from within me.

**Roy Mustang**

"Alright, I'm tired of waiting; Alex, make some stairs for us to use so we can get in there, I just know something is gonna go wrong, we need to get inside before its-"

With a rumbling BOOM! that shook the whole city, we all fell over on our asses, and I sighed.

"Too late" Alex finishes, as we struggled back to our feet.

"Ok, now a new order; unless you get orders from someone higher up than me or Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, you stay on this side of that metal barrier the monster erected; someone has obviously become the focus of his wrath, and we'd be best to stay out of the way, even I can't take on this beast, so that should speak volumes about how well you other folks would fare in a fight with that thing, am I clear?" I shout, causing the men to salute.

"Sir yes sir!" they shout obediently.

"Mustang, do you think its wise to just stay out here? What if Ed has lost control again?" Armstrong whispers as he slinks over.

"I bet that's why he made the barrier, in case he did, so we wouldn't get hurt, so I think its best we stay here. As much as I'd like to really see what Ed can do, it probably isn't safe, I can only imagine what he's doing to the Ishvalan in there" I reply solemnly, causing Alex to shiver some.

"As strange as it may seem, I pity the poor man who has to face Edward Elric when he's really mad, even if that man is the infamous Scar. The boy is certain to remember their first encounter, he's certain to not take too kindly to almost being killed" Alex whispers back.

"Yeah, I just hope Ed leaves something of a body left for us to identify; with his powers, he could atomize the bastard. Mostly, I just want Ed to not hurt anyone else, even by accident" I say as the rumbling dies down, causing Alex to nod as we stare at the wall again.

**Winry Rockbell**

"(Groan) Oh my head, what the hell happened I…EDWARD, HE BLASTED US! I can't believe it, that brat-AAHHHH! What the hell, it feels like my legs are broken, but I'm sure that's not possible, they'd have to be buried under rubble to have…-" I mumble to myself, as I realize that I' am buried under some rubble, but it wasn't that much, so the blast wave must have broken them. As I looked up, I realized all the buildings in the area had been damaged, and blown down, it was remarkable people weren't that injured.

"Winry, are you ok?" Al asks as he jumps over to where I was at, and began to clear the rubble.

"I'd be more worried about Edward, AND WHAT I'M GONNA DO TO HIM WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON THAT JER-AAAHHHH!" I scream as my leg pain surges again.

"There you two are, now, I'm dropping you and the other goofballs in my way on the other side of the wall, and I don't want to hear anymore bullshit about me going overboar…Winry?" Ed asks angrily, when his face suddenly does a mirror flip, and he gets those big concerned eyes.

**Edward Elric**

As I saw Winry's forehead, there was blood running down her forehead, and the Ki flow in her legs was out of synch, they were damaged!

"Winry…your head…your legs…" I drone, barely able to comprehend what had happened; In my anger…I had hurt the girl I hold most dear, and I could have…

"No…Winry…I didn't mean…this wasn't supposed to…" I babble, still unable to think straight, my mouth speaking on its own almost I was so out of it.

I had hurt Winry, with my own two hands, I'd made her cry yet again.

"BROTHER!" Al screams, snapping out of my dazed stupor and fully taking notice of what my rage had wrought.

"No…NO, WINRY! NO, WHAT HAVE I DONE! I can fix this, just please be ok!" I bellow, pushing Al out of the way and preparing for a closer examination of Winry's wounds.

"Hey, I wanted you to snap out of it Ed, not get pushy!" Al whines.

"Oh lighten up, in your current state you're pretty much indestructible as long as your blood seal remains intact, but Winry is flesh and bone, she needs medical attention stat! Don't worry Winry, I'll fix this, just please don't die on me" I pant as I begin to use my Ki healing to repair the damage.

"Ed, relax, its not that bad, just my legs broke and a bit of a laceration on my head; I'm ok, I wasn't dying" she replies lightly as my Ki waves bathe her in light, her comment causing me to look at her with a serious face.

"But you could have been, Winry, all my loved ones are as fragile as glass to me now, I'm that powerful, I have to have total control over my strength and emotions, or…well you saw, I nearly blew you up with a little slip-up of rage, imagine if I'd really lost it?" I reply weakly, counting each instant till she was completely healthy again.

"Well what matters now is I'm ok, and so is everyone else" Winry says calmly as the healing finishes and she hugs me.

"SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, WE ALMOST GOT BLOWN STRAIGHT BACK TO XING YOU ASSHOLE!" Ling yells angrily.

"You're lucky we anticipated that with our senses and got Ms. Chang to safety, you could have blown us all to pieces" Fu adds.

"At least you guys avoided most of the blast, we got hit, head on, IT HURT! it's a good thing I'm flexible or I could have really been hurt" Martel comments as she rubs her head, the other chimeras groaning too.

"Speak for yourself wimps, I was inside the damn blast and look what it did!" Envy screams as he shows off his half vaporized body, his left leg reduced to skeletal remains, and still healing along with the rest of his body.

"Ha, well I was smart and used my ultimate shield just before the wave hit, not a scratch" Greed boasts, till a loud cracking sound is heard and his whole graphene layer crumbles off his body in bits and pieces like broken glass, Envy and the chimera gang instantly laughed at this.

"Hey shut up! At least I'm not injured, my shield took the blow for me, I still consider myself the luckiest out of all you bastards" Greed says as he blushes heavily from embarrassment at the fact his shield couldn't take such a low level blow from me.

"Edward, warn your darling maiden before doing that next time ok? You could have hurt your future wife" May says, causing me and Winry to nearly choke.

"FUTURE WHAT!" we say simultaneously.

"ENOUGH! Right now, you might wanna take stock of the missing Ishvalan I recovered for you, and his lackey, Yogi something, and by the way, I'm the luckiest Greed, the blast phased right through me in my shadow portal form, I didn't even feel a thing" Pride says as he walks over, his numerous shadow hands holding the two over his head by their ankles.

"ITS YOKI! How come only Edward here remembers that?" the ex-military official sobs.

"Sorry about that Yoki; Pride, put him down, he's just a guy down on his luck, no need to manhandle the dude, but keep a good grip on Scar, I wanna deal with him personally" I say as I get up and head toward Pride, who had bound Scar with his shadows at his feet, while Yoki fled behind Alphonse the moment he was let loose.

"Ok Scar, it's the end of the line is where you are, time to pay the piper!" I shout as my palms begin to glow with flame like Ki emanations.

"Ed, please listen to me, I wasn't trying to just make you stop before the blast, I really don't hold the death of my parents to Scar, I'm sure he never meant to, if he wasn't so scared and drugged when he came to, I doubt he'd have hurt them, they did save his life, he surely didn't mean to kill them, it must have been a mistake" Winry pleads, causing me to extinguish my energy fire.

"No…you're wrong, I was responsible for my actions" Scar announces, causing everyone's attention to snap to him, my own included.

**Winry Rockbell**

Now that I was pain-free, I could think clearly; but still, I now questioned what I had heard. Scar was…admitting he did it, and knew what he was doing when he did it?

"Scar…what are you saying, that you purposely killed my mom and dad?" I gasp through choking sobs.

"Yes, I did it, I knowingly murdered the Rockbells in cold blood 7 years ago" Scar says calmly, letting his fists relax, and his body go limp as he sighed.

"You…you knew what you were doing, what they did for you…and you still…(voice grows hushed) killed them?" I rasp, hoping I was hearing things.

After a few moments of silence, Scar replied monotonously, "Yes"

I felt the dams break, and my eyes leaked forth with hot fresh tears, as I realized the truth; all this time, Scar didn't accidentally kill them, it was all intended. As I wept, Edward screamed.

"YOU BASTARD, I KNEW IT, YOU DID MURDER THEM IN COLD BLOOD, HOW DARE YOU!" Edward roars, snapping me out of my crying fit to see his face contorted with anger. Holding up his right hand, a red glow began to emit from it, slowly taking the shape of…a double-edge blade; he'd formed a sword of pure Ki. Lowering it, he pointed the tip straight at Scar and began to scowl.

"(Panting) You…monster! I'm…gonna…hack you to death, PIECE BY PIECE!" Edward bellows, practically foaming at the mouth and trembling with rage as he slashes the ground beside us for emphasis, causing a huge molten slice to be carved into the earth beneath where he struck, the trench 100 feet deep and 30 feet long.

"You got 10 seconds before I slice and dice you to oblivion, so this is your only chance to make a last request" Edward says as he holds the blade over Scar like an ancient executioner.

"Wait…I have one question before anything else happens, and its for Scar" I say as I have a sudden realization, causing everyone gathered to look at me funnily. Walking over to where he was restrained by Pride's tendrils, I looked him in the eyes, doing my best to keep the tears out of mine long enough to ask my question.

"Scar, before I can decide whether there is even a chance I can forgive you even a little, I have to know…do you have any regret for what you did to my parents?" I ask solemnly, taking everyone by surprise, including Scar, and causing Ed to belay his judgment slash.

**Scar**

As I lay there, restrained by shadows from the demon kid, I realized that I was being offered a serious opportunity for a chance to explain myself, and how I felt, how I felt…about my greatest mistake.

"Girl…I mean, Winry, I've killed plenty of people in my life, most without a moment of regret. But there are two I've always wished I could take back ever since the moment I did it" I say quietly, causing the boy to stand at ease and make the glowing blade vanish.

"So…(Sniffle) you do regret killing my mother and father?" she cries.

"Every day of my life, every waking moment, if there was one thing I could take back, it was killing those two heroes, they were probably the only Amestrians I could ever say were worthy of respect. (Dry chuckle) Listen to me, the guy who killed them, admitting he thinks that some Amestrians are heroes, talk about ironic" I reply quietly. With a quiet chuckle, Winry knelt down and looked at me, smiling for some reason.

"That's all I needed to hear Scar, thank you" she says gently, then rose back to her feet and looked at Edward Elric with a firm face.

"Ed, I want you to spare his life" she says demandingly, causing the kid to stare at her.

Then, of all the absurdities, he started laughing.

"HA HA HA! Good one Winry, spare the life of Scar, just like that, HA HAAAAAAA! Whoooo, man you've got some sense of humor, eh…wait, you're serious?" he replies, his humor drying up as he saw her face. I was surprised too, despite having so grievously wronged her, she still was willing to let me live.

"Yes, spare his life, we could use all the people on our side we can get, plus he is sorry, I saw it in his eyes" she continues, causing Edward to grab his chin.

"Hmmm, you make some good points; spare Scar, all on your word, even though he killed innocent lives, including those of a little girl, and your parents. Ok, let me think, um…what's the words I'm looking for?" he remarks in a mocking voice. I knew that wasn't a good sign.

"Oh yeah, now I remember; NO BLOODY FUCKING WAY IN HELL!" he roars, as the crimson blade of energy reforms in an instant, and he swings at me. Reacting instinctively, I barely dodged the blow, as it left a molten hole in the ground.

"Damn it, you're supposed to hold still and take your execution like a man! Well, you'll hold still now, Pride, tighten the grip!" he shouts, and I feel the shadows constrict me further.

"He says your time is up, so your time is up, meet the reaper himself, Edward Elric" the boy says in his chilling voice as he holds me down.

"Now, to answer for all your crimes, and to avenge the death of my family friends, the parents of my Winry, today you DIEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Edward yells as he raises the blade and prepares to swipe with his blade again. I knew this time, there would be no escaping, I would perish now.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Alphonse and Winry scream, as they suddenly get in front of me, causing Edward to gasp and halt the swing in mid-air.

**Edward Elric**

Just before I could execute Scar, for no logical reason, Al and Winry stepped between me and Scar, holding their arms out and using themselves as human shields.

"What the fuck…YOU IDIOTS, MOVE, ATTEMPTING TO DEAL OUT JUSTICE HERE!" I shout, causing them to move closer to Scar.

"No, this is wrong, he's sorry for his crimes, let him live brother" Al shouts defensively.

"Maybe you didn't hear him earlier, he confessed that he did it willingly with his own damn mouth! He may be repentant, but that doesn't change the fact that he's guilty, he doesn't even feel sorry for the other alchemists, hell, he isn't sorry he killed Nina, and yet you still want me to spare his life? Well that's it, get out of the way right now!" I shout, causing them to scoot even closer to him.

"NO!" they scream in absolute refusal.

"I…wasn't…asking" I growl through clenched teeth as I wave my hands, causing two giant adamantium fists to erupt from the ground and carry them off to the side.

"Alright, that's it, I was onboard with this "killing Scar" idea till this point, but now after seeing what its gonna turn you into if you succeed, I can't let you do it Ed" Ling shouts as he leaps over with his sword drawn, Lan Fan and Fu joining him.

"Yeah, the foreigner has a point, you're losing yourself to the hatred kid, you gotta calm down before its too late, so we're giving you two choices" Greed remarks as he begins to coat himself in his shield.

"You can either stand down and let Scar live-" Martel adds as she stands with the growing group that stood between me and the Ishvalan.

"-Or fight us" Greed's voice echoes as his graphene cover completely finishes covering him.

"All of us, to the bitter end; sorry darling, but I just can't stand aside and watch my future husband become a heartless killer" May says in agreement as she fills her hands with Kunai knives, Xiao-Mei growling as she stood on May's shoulder.

"Yeah, you might be strong, but I doubt you can take all of us at once, you're still just made of flesh and blood" Ling continues, causing me everyone to stare at him with shock, and me to laugh in hysterics

"Well why don't you just put that theory to the test Greling?" I joke as I wipe my eyes, remembering the name it depicted I'd come up with in the anime, causing the prince to cock his head to the side in confusion.

"Sorry, it's a joke I'll have to explain some other time; anyways, back to your threats, I say, BRING IT ON!" I shout, causing them to charge me angrily.

The fools, blindly rushing into a smack down, hadn't my earlier demonstrations of power proven they were no match for me? As the chimeras reached me, I parried each blow with one hand, never bothering to even punch back due to how much force each parry contained, they knocked themselves back after every blow. To my eyes, this spectacle was elegant, like a dance, deflecting each blow gracefully with ease. To them, it undoubtedly looked like they were fighting a grand master of martial arts, and in truth, they were.

"What's wrong, I thought we were going to fight guys, not take a trip to the ballroom" I chuckle as I balance on one foot and use a sweeping kick with a wide arc, tripping all four of them flat on their asses. In an instant, they were upon me again, and Roa and Dolcetto were charging me with their hammer and katana respectively.

Holding up my arms, I used the right fist to smash the head of Roa's hammer to bits as it came near me, and the left hand to snap Dolcetto's katana blade off right at the handle, unintentionally sending the shrapnel zinging toward Yoki's head in a nearby alley.

"AAHHHHHH! Careful, you almost took my head off damn it!" Yoki screams angrily.

"Sorry about that man, I'll make it up to you later; alright chumps, playtime is over" I snarl as I face my would be assailants again.

With a single tap to each of their stomachs, they all flew back 10 feet into a pile, where they sat up weakly, trying to stay conscious.

"That's ring out for you guys, alright now…who's next?" I smirk as I curl my fingers, anticipating a bit more fighting before I had to get back to business.

Immediately following their collective collapse, came the three Yao clansmen fighters. They quickly charged me, their moves much swifter than the chimeras, faster even than Martel, their blows were also much more precise, and I found myself needing to turn it up a notch to stay ahead. As their ferocity continued, I decided I'd start tapping them back, making sure to seriously restrain myself so I didn't cause injury. With every touch I dealt them, they groaned more and more, their other moves weakening as my blows whittled away their strength and accuracy.

"This is insanity! How can one man as skilled at martial arts so as to be able to fight off edged weaponry with his bare hands?" Fu comments as we keep trading blows, my arms easily holding off their sword swipes like swats from rolled up newspapers.

"It's the Ki! I remember cause I tried to cut him with my shield claws a short while back, I got about as far as you did, and they're stronger and sharper than steel blades, ordinary melee weapons just won't cut it!" Greed announces from the sides, apparently waiting before entering the fray for some reason.

"Then we have to change tactics, everyone fall back!" Ling shouts as he nods to his servants. Suddenly, Lan Fan and Fu reached into their pouches and pulled out a string of bombs, and pulled the detonation strings.

"TAKE COVER!" Fu shouts as they leap back several hundred feet, and Alphonse, who had apparently helped Winry and himself escape my adamantium fists with the use of Alchemy, created a series of pillars to carry the others away as well. Leaning down to pick up the bombs, I laughed at this pathetic attempt to hurt me as I held what would be certain death to ordinary people in my grasp.

"You think…(Laughing) that some stupid firecrackers are gonna do jack shit? HA! You Xingese are some kinda morons if you think this will work after all you've seen me do!" I retort, causing Ling to smile that stupid grin of his.

"They're portable dynamite caps we made for emergencies, I think you'll find they've got a bit of a kick to them" Ling chuckles smugly.

Moments later, the bomb fuses ran out and they blew up in my face, coating me in a cloud of smoke and soot.

**May Chang**

As the bombs blew up in Edward's face, I screamed with horror.

"NOOOO, EDWARD!" I scream, feeling certain that the blast had killed him, or worse, scarred his pretty face! Turning to face Ling, I leapt up and grabbed him by his shirt collar.

"HOW COULD YOU BLOW UP MY DARLING EDWARD!" I scream, pushing the would be emperor down on his rear as I leapt off and stood over him.

"I'm sorry, but I had to do it, nothing else was working on him" Ling argues as he sits up and dusts off his outfit.

"Correction, nothing _is_ working on me dumbass!" Edward's voice says bitterly from within the smoke. Looking toward the cloud, we all looked for the source of Ed's voice, and saw a silhouette inside. As the smoke cleared, it revealed a soot covered man with a very annoyed and angry expression on his face.

It was my darling Edward, wonderful! But as the smoke completely blew away, his features revealed that he looked even madder than before, and that was not wonderful.

"All you succeeded in doing was ruining my beautiful hair, and that really makes me mad!" he shouts angrily as he starts strolling toward us, but at a pace more akin to sprinting he was moving so fast.

"May, come on, we have to try and stall my brother long enough till we think of a way to reach him, you make sure to stay back while I use my Alchemy to try and hold him off" the tall armor man says as he steps forth and hold his hands near each other, as if in preparation to clap.

"For your information, I can use Alkahestry, and I'm far from defenseless" I huff as I toss a series of knives toward the ground mid-way between us and my approaching, enraged sweetheart. Dropping another pair of knives at my feet to form the other star, I place my hand on the ground, and with a surge of alkahestry, a giant stone fist erupts right into Edward's face, sending him flying back into a building as he is caught off guard.

"Sorry Ed dear, but I can't let go through with this course of action" I apologize, hoping he wouldn't hold it to me.

"Apparently you can't shut your trap you brat!" Edward says with a low, angry voice from right behind us. Slowly turning around, we saw him snarling, with clenched teeth.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Alphonse and I scream in fear, mostly from shock at how fast he'd move.

"I thought you knew how fast I was brother, come on, just stand down, I don't want to have to hurt you Al, just let me kill Scar and be done with it" Edward says calmly, reaching out with a twitching fist toward us.

"NO!" Al shouts, clapping his hands and transmuting a deep pitfall that swallowed up his Edward. As I peered down over the edge, I looked for the bottom, wondering how deep Al had made it.

"I can't even see the bottom, you think he's ok?" I worriedly, hoping Edward was ok.

"What do you think?" Ed's voice shouts from in the hole, as a bright red light appears from deep down inside. Within moments, the light got brighter, and Edward was floating slowly out of the hole, standing there menacingly, his eyes glowing white, his pupils and irises nowhere to be found as he snarled with rage. To add to it, he was also glowing with what appeared to be crimson fire!

Then, leaning over right in our faces, he whispered, "Boo!"

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" we scream, holding onto each other, with Al beginning to stutter in fear.

"You know me better than anyone Al, what did you think was gonna happen when you crossed your super powered older brother wise guy?" Edward says with a throaty, frightening tone.

"Please, don't make it too painful" Al whimpers as he cowers down, pushing me behind himself for protection.

"Oh you big baby, apart from the fact that you know I'd never hurt you for sadistic purposes, you're currently an animated suit of armor, you can't even feel pain idiot!" Edward shouts as a fierce wind picks up, and Alphonse is suddenly tossed over my head like a cannonball, screaming all the way.

"Alright little girl, time to go for a ride!" he shouts scarily as he floats closer to me with his arms outstretched to reach for me, the fire blazing all around him with power.

"STAY AWAY FROM ME, YOU'RE NOT MY EDWARD!" I scream as I toss hundreds of knives all around, forming dozens of alkahestry arrays. Dropping down as fast as I could, I put the last pair at my feet and activated the arrays, sending fist after fist of solid earth straight into his face and body.

"Hey (Grunt), brat (Grunt), stop that (Grunt), its very (Grunt), annoying (Grunt), please stop now (Grunt)" he argues as the fists continue to pummel him. I didn't plan to stop till the Edward I'd heard all about in Youswell was back, and truthfully, I hoped that I wouldn't have to do this much longer.

"I (Grunt), stop (Grunt), now (Grunts then begins to roar)" Edward snarls as all the fists head toward him at once.

"I…said…stop it, you little…PISSANTTTTTTTTTTT!" he thunders, a sudden pulse of red energy emitting from his chest and spreading out like a shockwave, shattering all the stone fists into gravel effortlessly, and blowing me off my feet toward a pile of broken glass spikes.

"WHAAAAA!" I scream, knowing I was gonna be killed from multiple puncture wounds immediately upon impact, so I closed my eyes and waited for the end.

"GOTCHA! That was too close, are you ok miss?" Al's voice shouts as I suddenly feel a pair of gentle metal arms cradling me softly in their embrace, squinting an eye open, I found I wasn't dreaming, I was alive. My hero none other than…the armor man Alphonse?

"Y-Yeah, I'm ok, I suppose…(Blushes) I didn't ask you to save me you know" I reply with embarrassment, as I somehow felt…comfortable in this armored man's arms.

"Oh, it was nothing, just doing my job, May Chang right?" he asks nervously.

"(Nods) Yeah, thank you for saving my life Mr. Alphonse" I reply as I hug him, the feelings I got from holding him strangely feeling…_right_ somehow.

"FOR THE YOUNG LORD!" Fu screams as he and Lan Fan leap towards Edward with their swords drawn, Edward raised his arms and easily blocked their blows, they repeated this 3 more times with increasing intensity after each one. After kicking off of Edward's limbs once more, they leapt at him a 5th time, with Lan Fan screaming, "FOR MASTER LING!"

Suddenly, Edward grabbed both the incoming warriors like sticks and growled with rage.

"I've had just about enough of your pointless, Xingese acrobatic assholery!" he roars as he swings both of them like rag dolls into the pavement with an overhead arcing slam that shook the area like a bomb blast, causing the ground where they were impacted to form fissures.

This didn't make any sense, what kind of a man was Edward, how could anything made of flesh and blood be so utterly invincible and powerful?

"LAN FAN!" Ling screams from nearby, as I see he had gotten up and was now facing down the shocked Edward, who turned to face his revived combatant.

**Ling Yao**

After having managed to snap out of my daze, I saw that Fu and Lan Fan were down, and Lan Fan was bleeding!

"NO, LAN FAN!" I scream again, focusing my attention on Edward, and feeling my anger rise and rise.

"Da hell…I put you down, how are you still up!" Edward asks with shock and anger, causing my fury to be fueled further. I couldn't understand it, but I felt like I was being consumed with rage too, my wrath and indignation boiling over as my entire body inexplicably filled with power and energy.

"What the…your Ki is growing, you've somehow…(Chuckle) now I see, so that's how you're still awake, your subconscious has already become accustomed to the new body" he smirks, his words barely reaching me as my rage kept growing. A few moments later, I felt my control slip completely, and I charged at him with all my might, my speed so great my feet didn't even feel as though I was touching the ground.

"LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!" I scream, as I fly at him with all my might, strange light glowing around me for some reason. Just before I hit him though, he sidestepped out of the way, and I kept going till I hit a wall face first, my head exploding with agony, then blacking out an instant later.

**Edward Elric**

Growling in annoyance, I levitated toward Scar, and saw that Pride had kept him restrained this whole time.

"Good job kid, I oughta be paying you for the level of loyalty I'm getting here" I say with a smile as I finally face Scar, knowing now that all opposition had been quelled, and I could finally do it. Creating the crimson Ki sword again, I held it up once more, preparing to finally slaughter Scar.

"Ahhh, at last, we get to execute the Ishvalan, go ahead and do it Mr. Reaper" Pride says with a smile.

"Hey, remember, he's only getting this treatment cause he's a big time murderer, just because he's an Ishvalan doesn't mean squat, its what he's done that earned him this fate Pride" I reply, causing him to nod.

"Yes sir Mr. Reaper, I know" he replies obediently.

"Hey…that's right, I do rather embody death with all this power, that means you get an extra special treat Scar" I laugh as I reform my Ki sword, into a Ki scythe.

"Prepare to get what's been coming to ya for 7 years powder hair!" I shout as I hold the scythe up high and prepare to strike down Scar at last.

"STOP THIS!" a familiar voice screams as he extends his huge green fist into my arm, making me lose my concentration and destabilizing the Ki scythe causing it to vanish. Turning my head, I saw it was indeed who I thought I'd heard that had halted my progress for the umpteenth time; Envy.

**Envy**

After having watched the whole fight, I saw exactly what Ed had said he saw in me before. Hatred; pure, unfiltered, uncensored, and unforgiving, inimical, wicked hatred and rage. I couldn't let someone like Ed ever turn into that kind of monster, it just wasn't right, something had to be done. Upon having gotten his attention, I walked in front of Scar and reverted back to my androgynous teen form, then into my true form, towering over Scar protectively as I looked Edward in the face.

"Edward, you have to stop now, everyone is in agreement that the best thing to do is for you to spare Scar's life so you don't get consumed by hate like he was, and worse, destroy everything you care about" I argue, causing him to roar and slap me in the jowls, the pain very intense for what had seemed like such a light blow when he first began to swing his hand.

"Scar doesn't get a second chance, murderers like him are the worst kind of criminals; sure maybe the two people he never meant to kill is something he regrets, but that doesn't change the fact that he doesn't regret killing all those alchemists, or the little girl Nina Tucker! Monsters who take innocent lives are as good as hamburger meat in my book, now outta my way Envy, I'm executing him now!" he screams angrily as he reforms the scythe and raises it above his head again. Damn it! I wish I knew how to reach him, make him understand that he shouldn't give up on this guy so quickly, compared to him, I was the monster of the two of us and…

Then it hit me, I knew what I had to do, I knew how to snap Ed out of his madness.

"THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO EXECUTE ME TOO PIPSQUEAK!" I shout, causing Edward's eyes to widen with shock. Shrinking back down to my androgynous form again to emphasize my seriousness, he floated down to his feet and kept looking at me with a horrified expression on his face.

"What?…that's crazy Envy; you've changed, you even had signs you wanted to change when we met, you're nothing like Scar, not at all" he says with shock, shaking his head as he lowers the scythe to his side.

"Nothing like Scar huh? Maybe this will convince you to remember the truth" I snap as I begin to shift my form back into the one I'd taken over 7 years ago.

"No…it can't be, he looks just like…-"

"The soldier who started the Ishvalan War" Edward mutters, cutting off Scar, as they both stared in shock and awe.

"Yeah, the guy who nearly caused the total genocide of the Ishvalan people by impersonating this soldier and killing the child" I state, causing Edward to tighten his grip on his energy scythe.

"that's right, it was you, I can't believe I almost forgot about how you were before" Edward drones mindlessly.

"You, you did this, you almost caused the annihilation of my entire race; all my family and friends, my brother, all because of you!" Scar asks indignantly as he struggles to break free of his restraints.

"Yes Scar, it is I who has to blame for all your sorrows and misery. It was due to my cowardice and refusal to disobey Father that you became what you are today. Once upon a time, I tried to ignore that gut wrenching feeling I had from killing that child, and causing the war that killed countless more, but after Edward and I talked a few weeks ago, he gave me a chance for freedom, to change who I was and get revenge on the rat bastard who made me into a tortured killing machine. I don't know if any amount of repayment or deeds can make up for the atrocities I committed, but I do know this, if a guy with just over a dozen people's blood on his hands doesn't deserve another chance, then certainly I don't, a thing with the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives staining his hands" I explain, as I kneel down before Edward on one knee to await his choice.

"If you're gonna execute Scar, then you have to execute me first, I'm the real bastard here, so I deserve to die too" I continue as I lay on my stomach, awaiting my imminent fate, though I hoped Edward would get a clue and snap out of it, I'd grown to be rather fond of my new friends, I'd prefer to live a long time now.

"So go ahead, destroy me now, like you should have done the moment we re-met after you gained this new power. Just do it, get it over with, kill m-"

"STOP!" Edward chokes, his tone filled with sadness. Flipping back onto my feet, I saw that he was crying, and that his face was streaked with tears. Without warning, the Ki scythe vanished with a hiss, and he fell to his knees, his eyes and nose leaking with fluid.

"How could I forget that promise I made when I started my journey; I'd sworn I'd never kill anyone, good or bad, that I'd leave it up to the judicial system, has my new power clouded my mind this much that I'd consider killing my friend just because of what he used to be, even after having helped change him?" he mumbles as his hands tremble with horror.

"Kill the shape-shifting demon, he's responsible for-MMMPH!" Scar begins, till Pride uses his shadow hands to shut him up before he ruins the moment.

"Shut your big fat Ishvalan trap, you'll wreck Edward's epiphany! Thanks bro" I say to Pride, who nods, but mutters how he wishes he coulda seen more action than what had happened today.

"Edward!" Winry shouts as she rushes up to him and wraps her arms around his neck.

**Edward Elric**

As Winry held me tightly, she patted my head, then looked up into my eyes deeply, her orbs glittering like a beautiful freaking pensieve from that Harry Potter franchise Psyagon had mentioned during downtime in our training. As she stared into me, she held my hands tightly and brought our intertwined fingers up to my field of vision.

"Edward, I know you as well as Alphonse, we've been together since we were little kids, and if there is one thing I'm absolutely sure of, its that when you're in your right mind, you are not a killer, not now, not ever" she says softly, causing me to emit a small gasp. Then, she knelt back down and hugged me around the chest tightly, her warmth replacing the burning, hollow Ki I'd been filled with earlier during my rage, with my usual warmer, gentler energy.

"Show me, show me, yourself, show all of us here, who you really are inside, because I think I know you pretty damn well…Edward Elric" she says gently as she returns her gaze back to my eyes and strokes my cheek, causing my tears to resurge again. Unable to control myself anymore, I hugged her back, making sure to not squeeze too tightly and hurt her with my awesome power, but also making sure I poured out all my emotions and pain from the past few weeks into the hug, so she knew how much I'd struggled with this inhuman power.

She held back in response, proving she understood everything.

"I want to…no, I' am a defender, not a destroyer. I'm not a taker of life, I'm a protector of it, even of people with pasts like you, or even Envy and the other Homunculi" I say calmly as I keep hugging Winry. After a few more minutes of tenderness, I stood up and sighed.

"Pride, release Scar from the shadow bonding" I command, causing the eldest homunculus to nod and let go. Immediately, Scar got his hands up, apparently ready to use his destruction technique.

"Ok, there will be none of that, now stay still" I shout as I appear in front of him with a burst of speed, and transmute a pair of adamantium restraints that cover his entire hands, and some for his ankles too.

"Consider yourself our prisoner Scar, we have a lot to discuss when we get back to Rush Valley, and don't bother trying to deconstruct the cuffs, they're made of an alloy you know nothing of, so you're trapped" I say firmly as I hand him over to Greed.

"Sorry about being so rough earlier Al, I was kinda mad with power, literally (weak chuckle)" I reply, causing him to nod.

"Everyone else here, come on, we've got some traveling to do in a moment" I shout as I use my alchemy to begin converting the adamantium barrier I'd used to wall up the city with back into Ki energy, absorbing it into myself.

"YAY! My Edward is back, now you can dump the blonde bimbo and come with me to Xing so I can become the empress and-"

BONK!

"You're still a mouthy little brat, but I hope we can be friends once you wake up again and we've had a good long talk about my girlfriend" I say with a smile as I look at Winry after knocking May Chang out with a light tap before she can ramble further, causing Xiao-Mei to start growling.

"Al, keep May and the panda company, I gotta go grab the chimeras so we can get out of here" I say as he nods and takes Xiao-Mei and May into his arms.

"Pride, you get Ling, Lan Fan, and Fu; Greed and Envy, go get Yoki, he's still cowering over there behind that dumpster.

After several minutes, all my allies had been gathered, and Pride had begun to prep for transport. Gently putting Winry into the portal that was forming, I kissed her cheek and smiled.

"I'll see you in Rush Valley soon" I say gently as I wave her off. After sinking into the portal, that left me alone with Scar, and Yoki, who was still rattling with terror.

"Who…who are all you people, and how did Edward become such a beast?" Yoki stammers as his teeth chatter.

"Relax, it will all be explained once we've seen off Winry and head to Resembool" I say cheerfully as I pat Yoki's back.

"Resembool, in the east?" he remarks with surprise.

"Yep, my hometown, didn't know I was an country boy did ya?" I chuckle, causing Yoki to relax some.

"It will be nice to get fresh air out there, I've been in desperate need of it" he sighs, while Scar just grunts, annoyed at his predicament.

"Oh give it a rest dude, even if you could get out of those unbreakable cuffs, I'd put you down before you can blink, you'd be out colder than the outer metal of Fort Briggs, so just chill or I'll make you" I warn, causing him to silence himself.

"HALT! This is the military police, we have you surrounded!" the voice of Roy Mustang announces, as we find ourselves covered on all sides by soldiers.

"Oh, its that dude I heard about from the Fullmetal punk, Royce Mustard" I laugh, causing the colonel to pop a vein with fury.

"MUSTARD? HOW DARE YOU INSULT A MILITARY OFFICIAL YOU BASTARD!" he screams angrily.

"(Chuckle) Mustard, that's actually pretty funny, for a psychopathic murderer, he's got a good sense of humor-"

"SHUT UP ARMSTRONG OR I'LL HAVE YOU COURT MARTIALED FOR INSUBORDINATION!" Roy screams.

"Ulp, sorry; right then, prepare for a rematch monster, this time I won't fall so easily, and you'll witness the true power of my alchemy!" Alex gulps, quickly resuming his confidence as he faced me with his fists raised; man these two sure knew how to act for a crowd.

"Sorry gentlemen, but I don't have time to play, I've taken Scar as my prisoner, and no one can tell me otherwise, now if you'll excuse me, I shall be taking my leave, good day" I say with a bow as I put a hand on the shoulder of both Scar and Yoki.

"Hold it right there!" Roy shouts, causing all the men to cock their guns and point them at me.

"Oh what now?" I groan, giving Mustang a facial tick to let him know I wanted to know why he hadn't been more descriptive of how dangerous I was when mad to Central Command as the monster man.

"We can't just let you walk away sir, our orders are to bring you in for trial, and then your fate will be up to the justice system of Amestris" Alex adds, causing me to sigh.

"You're gonna pay for what you did, a lot of our friends were in Central when you blew it up, we're taking you down" a random soldier cries angrily, causing many others to nod in agreement.

"Yeah, despite what they've said, you're not bulletproof, let alone bomb proof, that's just not possible, so you may as well surrender" another one adds. Immediately, I began to laugh, causing the soldiers to look at each other with a confused look, then back to me.

"Ahhh, oh you poor deluded fools; you mean you actually took the details from the report by the Führer himself as overblown rumors? Take a good look at my hair, my golden blonde hair" I say, causing them to start commenting on the soot in it.

"That's right, soot, and you know how it got there? From the explosion of a belt of 20 capsules filled with dynamite happening right in my face, that's right, I took a bomb blast to the face and all it did was mess up my hair color!" I shout, causing many to start getting scared, and gossip about how the rumors were true.

"Enough! We're all a little skeptical of your claims monster, so I bet you wouldn't mind if we tested them, right?" Roy says with a smirk, as he curls his fingers and signals men to bring in machine guns.

"You're enjoying keeping me tied down here aren't you Colonel?" I reply with a stonewall face, causing him to smirk.

"Relax, someone as powerful as you must have all the time in the world to spare; take aim men" he continues, causing the soldiers to prime the machine guns.

"FIRE!" Roy shouts almost immediately after, and I began to be pelted by gunfire, the shells impacting harmlessly on my Ki barrier, collecting like stickers.

After 2 minutes of continuous fire, Roy realized I hadn't been kidding when I bragged about being bulletproof, and he waved his hands and started to scream for a ceasefire. Unfortunately, having 12 automatic 50 caliber weapons going off at the same time rather ensures no one can hear you if your voice is just human in volume, even a screaming volume. So motioning to Alex, he had some supplies brought over, and the Strong Arm Alchemist transmuted a loudspeaker system. Picking up the microphone, Roy cleared his throat in preparation for his command.

"I GAVE THE CEASE FIRE ORDER 40 SECONDS AGO MORONS, NOW CEASE FIREEEEEEEE!" his voice bellows, echoing painfully in the ear of every human across the area, thank goodness I had the ability to withstand more sensory stimuli than humans now, or I'd be hearing ringing in my ears too.

"See? It was all a waste of ammunition" I reply from beneath a thin layer of deformed artillery shells, which then proceeded to flake off like dandruff, clattering to the ground ominously with light plinks, each ding making the soldiers more and more frightened.

"That's right, the rumors weren't rumors, they are true; I'm bulletproof, bombproof, fireproof, blade proof, hell I'm practically absolute in my invulnerability, it will take far more advanced or powerful weapons before you chumps will be able to harm me" I announce, making many begin to cower in terror. Smirking, I walked back over to Scar and Yoki, with the latter being scared out of his wits too.

"Alright, now seriously, I have to go, there are people waiting for me, so farewell for now men" I say as I put my hands back on Yoki and Scar's shoulders and begin to teleport us at last.

As we began to vanish with instantaneous movement, I smiled and announced, "Oh by the way, that incident here in Central a few weeks ago, that was all a big misunderstanding, I was disoriented and absorbed too much information at once, I'll try to make up for what I did one day, somehow"

With one last flash, we disappeared from view toward our destination, leaving every soldier but Roy and Alex very shocked and confused.


	25. Regrouping In Resembool, North Bound

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 25: Regrouping In Resembool, North Bound**

**Ling Yao**

As I stirred from my slumber, I heard voices talking, two of them belonging to Lan Fan and Fu, both sounding very far off, I must have taken a blow to my head because it hurt, which would explain the difficulty hearing.

"You and your accursed Philosopher's Stone boy, its turned the young lord into a disfigured freak!" Fu shouts angrily, causing me to try and focus harder, the voices becoming clearer.

"For the last time, its not a Philosopher's Stone! Its something else entirely, and Ling is not a freak, he should be proud of the accident his reckless actions brought about on himself" the angry voice shouts, now able to discern that it belonged to Edward.

"I still don't understand what's going on; grandfather, Master Ling seems the same as always, I don't think he's a freak" Lan Fan says quietly, an undertone of concern for me in her voice.

"The girl is right, there is nothing wrong with your prince, and all the details will be explained in due time, when Ling can hear it for himself so I don't have to repeat it all" Edward says in defense of my favorite guard.

"You think the young lord growing a tail isn't a problem!" Fu yells angrily, apparently not accepting Edward's argume…

All of a sudden, I felt myself snapped awake as I absorbed the full weight of what was just said.

"I GREW A WHAT!" I bellow, causing the 3 gathered before me to jump, apparently not having expected me to awaken this quickly.

"Oh, Ling!…hey there buddy, did you rest well?" the tall boy asks quickly. His eyes were twitching rapidly, as he tried to remain calm, his voice clearly shaken as he replied.

He was trying to soften big news before he delivered it! I could tell by his face and tone, something had happened to me recently, and I intended to figure out immediately.

"What the hell is going on?" I demand, causing Edward to chuckle nervously.

"Ok, Ling, look, please don't freak out over what I'm about to tell you. You slept through yesterday after the battle in Central, and dawn just broke a few hours ago, but you're fine, there's nothing wrong with you" Edward says calmly, attempting to skirt the big issue they'd been discussing while I was out.

"Edward, stop avoiding the topic…what's this talk of me being disfig-OW!" I shout as I suddenly feel my energy drained when I shift my weight onto my rear.

"What the hell, why do I feel so weak all of a sudden? Its like there's something sensitive pinned beneath my aaaaa-AAAAAHHHHHH! A TAIL!" I scream as I reach under my butt and find a black, monkey like tail, a tail!

"WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO ME!" I shriek, causing Edward to panic and clamp my mouth shut.

"SHUSH! You moron, you want the local residents to think you're being tortured? Calm down or I'll knock you out again!" he hushes harshly. Noting the serious look in his eyes, I nodded and closed my jaws, causing him to remove his hand. After regaining enough composure to be able to speak calmly, I sighed and tried again.

"Edward, what has happened to me? I have a damn monkey tail! As a prince and foreign diplomat, I demand you give me answers now, or I'll convince my country to go to war with Amestris" I whisper, causing him to give me a "you've gotta be kidding me" stare.

"Really, you're threatening me? Me, Edward Elric, a man turned living embodiment of cosmic scale force, with a petty war that I'll end in 5 seconds with my power, really?" he replies with a low voice.

"Cosmic scale…you can't be serious can you?" Fu comments breathlessly, Lan Fan staring at me as he spoke, not with fear or disgust, but…concern it seemed. However, a light poke from Edward to my stomach knocked the breath out of me, and he got my full attention once more.

"You're damn right I' am! And you Ling, you're gonna be told everything as soon as we get to Resembool, but by my good will, nothing more, I don't _have_ to explain jack! Keep pushing it and I'll boot your ass back to Xing and make sure that the Chang clan gets the throne, not yours, am I clear?" Edward growls as his eyes glow a menacing red, like his aura from yesterday.

"(Wheeze) Yes, crystal clear, like that stone on your neck" I gasp, the wind having been knocked out of me from his finger jab.

Wait, yesterday, Edward, his necklace, the fight! There was something that had happened during the fight, but more importantly, something must have happened to me before that when I grabbed the stone, the phrase that the voice inside it had whispered to me still fresh in my mind.

"You have been deemed worthy, and your request shall be granted" is what it had said, the tone filled with wisdom and approval.

"Good, now, get ready, we'll be leaving once I let Winry know you're ok" Edward says with a smile as he begins to walk out of the room I was in.

"The young girl Winry refused to let him move you until it was certain you were ok Master Ling" Lan Fan says as she bends to one knee in respect.

"Lan Fan, are you alright, Edward didn't hurt you did he?" I ask as I get to my feet and hug her, causing my ward to blush and push me off her.

"Yes, I'm fine Master Ling, all he did was incapacitate us, not even to the same degree as you were, he went rather easy on us" she replies quickly, her cheeks still pink; I really wish I could figure out why she never made a move on me, I knew we both liked each other.

"Indeed, even despite his rage, he showed great control against us, it was very strange, as though he were at war with himself" Fu says with a pensive tone.

"Alright, time to get dressed, we leave in 10 minutes princey" Edward laughs as he sticks his head in the door before closing it. What an odd nickname, I wonder what princey meant? After handing me a set of fresh clothes, my servants turned their backs to me, and I began to change. While I was switching clothes, I could swear I felt a gust of wind from Lan Fan turning her head to sneak a peak at me, but it may have been my imagination, my senses couldn't be that acute. After a few more moments, I was all prepared and ready to go, and we walked out of the bed chamber, and found that the next room was filled with many people, most notably, the criminal known as Scar.

"Why is he here, last I checked you were trying to kill him weren't you?" I comment, causing him to sigh.

"Yes, I was, but I came to my senses and he's being given one last chance. However, if he blows that, I'm gonna squash his skull beneath my foot, after hacking off all his limbs piece by piece; isn't that right Scar?" he asks rhetorically as he nods over to the Ishvalan who was bound in heavy shackles.

"Yes, I understand" he says quietly, apparently Edward had broken him or something, because that fighting desire I'd seen in him before was gone whenever he looked at the boy now.

"Good, now Winry, I'm not sure what we'll be doing next, but I'm sure it will involve something regarding trying to get Al's body back, so we'll probably be traveling soon, I'll let you know when we figure out the details, so take care, and if you ever find yourself in trouble, promise me you'll just use that device I made for emergencies, don't try to fight" he says gently, as he holds her.

"I promise, you just make sure that you don't wind up dead, I want you to stay alive Edward Elric" she says as she hugs him back. I was rather envious of how open they were, and it seemed that they hadn't been like this till now, I had not heard mention of a relationship from him when we first talked yesterday, he must have wanted to keep it more private till now.

"Can do, wish us luck on finding a way to get Al back in his body" Edward says with a cheerful expression as he breaks the hug and walks to the center of the room.

"Ok everyone, grab on to me anywhere but down there, we're outta here as soon as everyone is connected to me" Edward announces as he briefly nods down to his crotch, then looks around, people walking up to him and putting hands on his shoulders for some reason.

"What's going on?" Lan Fan comments as we watch the strange spectacle of everyone forming a chain that connects to Edward.

"Its only the fastest way to travel, come on, grab hold, its actually kinda fun once you get used to it, its travel by alchemy" Alphonse says cheerfully.

"Travel by alchemy, this isn't like going through Pride's portal is it? No offense kid, but that was very creepy feeling, I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon" I reply, causing him to chuckle.

"That wasn't actually alchemy in the strictest sense your highness, and don't give on it so quickly, it just takes time getting used to traveling by shadow; besides, you'll get used to this method Edward uses much quicker, because its an entirely different mode" Pride says with a smile.

"That's right, now all of you grab on and we'll be off" Edward says in agreement as he waits for us to come over there. Hesitating for a moment, we decided to gamble on it, and grabbed onto Alphonse's free arm, the other one holding the still sleeping May Chang.

"Alright, is everyone here?" he asks one more time, looking around at us, the chimeras, Greed, Envy, and Scar who as being held by an extra arm of Envy's.

"WAIT! Don't forget me!" the balding man with a mustache shouts as he rushes up and puts his hand on Edward's back.

"Where were you?" he asks the older man with suspicion.

"Bathroom, where else, why do you always accuse me of underhandedness you hypocrite" the man snaps.

"Yoki chill, I was kidding, I knew, I can smell the urine pheromones; now grab on so we can get outta here" he laughs, causing Yoki to sigh chuckle too. So his name was Yoki, I'd have to try and remember that.

"You have an interesting sense of humor Edward, but I'm just glad you're not trying to kill me; I'm ready" Yoki replies calmly.

"Ok then, everyone ready, here we go" Edward announces as I feel a strange pressure on my body, and then in an instant, a sensation of…weightlessness pervades my senses as the room around us vanishes.

**Scar**

In what took a span of only moments, we suddenly went from being inside that room with Winry, to another, with a more homey atmosphere.

"Ok, we're good now, you can all let go" Edward says cheerfully.

"How in the…where are we?" Ling shouts with shock as he leaps around like a cat, inspecting the home with great detail.

"The Rockbell Automail Shop in Resembool, its where Al and I grew up after our mom died, hey Penako!" the boy shouts, causing a sound of dishes clattering and breaking to come back.

"Damn it Edward, I said to give me warning ahead of time before you pop in like that, you startled me so bad I dropped a whole load of clean dishes, get in here and fix them!" an elderly woman snaps.

"I'll take care of it Granny, be right back guys" Al says as he casually trots off to the kitchen door at the other end of the room.

"Forgive my bluntness Mr. Elric but, (takes a deep breath) WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!" Fu screams to Edward, who sighed.

"Isn't it obvious? Its called instantaneous movement, the deconstruction of objects or people from matter to particles, projecting them to the desired location, then reconstructing them back to their original form, all in the span of a few moments regardless of distance" Edward explains as he takes a seat on a couch behind him.

"Wait, you mean you used alchemy on our bodies? But…that's human transmutation!" Yoki screams worriedly.

"So? Isn't it rather advantageous, being able to move at infinite speed, and obviously I wouldn't have done it if I thought it wasn't safe" he replies nonchalantly.

"But you transmuted us Edward, that's illegal, and more important, very dangerous" the short haired blonde girl remarks with a serious tone.

"Not all human transmutation is bad, its just a very special field that requires precise study and testing with people who willingly want to advance the science at their own risk; alchemy has practically limitless applications, and it'd be a shame to not explore the field of human transmutation as much as possible just because it has two moral red zone subjects. Besides, medical alchemy could be considered human transmutation too, after all, alchemy is being used on the body, so its technically exactly that, so there" Edward counters, making the girl's planned argument die on her lips.

"The kid got you there Martel, face it, he's already proven how good it is, he got us from Rush Valley to Resembool in under 5 seconds, and they're hundreds of miles apart, I'm already a fan of this instant movement thing" the short man with slick hair laughs. I was surprised at how well all these very different people got along, considering who was mingling with them.

Edward Elric, the infamous State Alchemist who had done the most treacherous act of blasphemy, trying to create human life. How he'd managed to get his limbs back though remained a mystery, but I intended to find out.

"Oh stop brooding Scar, you know you might learn to embrace Alchemy if you could learn to look past your own nose" Edward chastises, causing me to snap my focus to him.

"Alchemy is an affront to Ishvala, to create things is blasphemous to his works" I retort, causing the boy to frown.

"Well I guess that makes blacksmiths sinners then, as well as shoemakers, watchmakers too, and lets not forget, the people who made those stupid glasses you wore" he says sarcastically, his words seeming to have a hidden meaning.

"What are you getting at?" I inquire, hoping he'd explain why he made his statement.

"Hello! Don't you get it? According to your half-assed doctrine, your god feels that messing with the nature he created is offensive, which means he would find all science and technology blasphemous, including the medicine the Rockbells used to save your life and those of hundreds of Ishvalans!" he shouts, causing everyone to look at me with a very judgmental stare.

"Obviously you don't truly believe science and technology to be wrong, let alone Alchemy, or you wouldn't bother to use any of them; if you truly believed your own religion, you wouldn't even be here, you'd be out in the wild, living off the land with no societal advancements, hell your people wouldn't even have paper to write their beliefs down on, cause that's messing with nature too" he continues, striking a cord deep within me, he spoke like someone I knew before.

"So tell me Scar, do you really think that Alchemy and Alkahestry are evil? Because your brother sure didn't think so, his former right arm you carry now is proof of that, he saw the good it can do" Edward states accusingly, causing my eyes to widen. That's why I felt that pain in my heart, he reminded me…of my brother, Michael.

"Brother…I'm sorry I failed to get you and our family to safety" I mutter to myself, causing Edward too look at me with a peculiar face.

"Scar, you ok?" he asks as he walks over and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"I'm fine, leave me alone" I say bitterly, upset with myself that an Amestrian could remind me of Michael.

"Ok, sure, but first, let me lighten your restraints, you really only need it on your right hand" he says as the shackles around my ankles and arms begin to vanish in a burst of blue, leaving a thin coating over my right hand that wasn't near as heavy as the total weight had been.

"There, you're still unable to use your destruction alchemy, but you can move around now, I figure you'll at least be smart enough to not try anything stupid from now on, at least I hope. Just remember, I know your Ki signature now, so I can sense you anywhere you hide in the world, there is no use running, now try to relax, have some chamomile tea" he says as a burst of blue light occurs once more and he hands me a steaming cup of tea.

"Thank you" I reply as I take the warm liquid and begin to drink it.

"Uh…Mr. Scar, he didn't simply give you hot tea, he made that from thin air with Alchemy somehow" Yoki says nervously. Upon hearing his words, I nearly breathed it all down my lungs, then spit the remainder of it out violently all over Edward.

"(Coughing) YOU MADE THIS WITH ALCHEMY!" I splutter in shock, unable to believe I'd let it touch my lips.

"(Growling) Couldn't you have just drunk the damn tea, instead of reacting like…that!" he snarls as the liquid on his skin begins to steam and boil.

"Uh oh, you've done it now Scar" the demonic Envy says with a worried tone, as Edward becomes surrounded by the blood red aura again, causing his hair and clothes to whip around. Immediately, they all stepped back to give him room.

"(Yawn) Hey, what's with all the noise?" the soft voice of the girl May Chang asks from nearby on the sofa, causing Edward to instantly stop and turn his attention to her.

**May Chang**

I'd just woken up, and all I could hear was yelling. Upon stretching asking what was with the yelling, I heard the voice of dreamy Elric respond to my question.

"Oh, May, its alright, everything is fine; sorry about waking you up like that" he says apologetically.

Getting up to stretch, I sighed and sniffed the air, surprised to find the scent of tea in the air. Looking around, I saw Scar was holding a tea cup in his left hand, but no pot.

"Who made chamomile, is there any left?" I comment, causing Edward to snarl bitterly.

"Yeah, its all in my clothes; I made a cup for Scar to help him relax, but he choked and did a spit take all over me once he heard it was made with "alchemy", talk about rude, at least turn your head when you do a one of those spews like I do" Edward says with a growl, causing me to frown.

"I sure hope you get over that attitude problem Edward, it's a real turn off to me" I huff, causing him to gasp and fall over.

**Edward Elric**

As I did an anime fall, I found myself unable to believe what I was hearing; she was still attracted to me even after all that stuff yesterday. I had to figure out why she as acting this way.

"WHAT! Girl, I think there has been a misunderstanding. You're supposed to like my little brother, not me; I'm not the tall, prince charming from your fantasies you imagined and-holy crap what have I done?" I begin as I yell, my voice quickly dying on my lips as I began to realize how I'd messed up.

Letting my mind wander back to memories of the Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood Anime, I took notice of the two fantasy thought sequences belonging to May that had been shown, of her imagining a tall, handsome alchemist with stylish clothes and great hair. Then, I went back to the events of yesterday, when I had show off both my forms to Scar, to prove I was the boy he'd fought before. That's when May first began to act like this, and now I knew exactly why.

Not only was I now tall, but to add to it, I was the perfect specimen of health and manliness, with a body straight out of classical arts and properly proportioned. I didn't just fulfill her fantasies of the man she'd been dreaming of, I exceeded them! Aw fuck, what was I gonna do now? She'll never fall for Alphonse with a guy like me around! Worse, what would Winry say if she found out about this incident?

"Something wrong my darling Edward?" May asks worriedly as she walks up to me. Thinking quickly, I thought of a good distraction to get her to stop talking about this subject.

"Oh, hey, I didn't see Xiao-Mei sleeping with you, where could she have run off to?" I comment, causing May to scream.

"AAHHHH! XIAO-MEI, WHERE ARE YOU?" May yells as she leaps around frantically, looking for her little panda pet.

"She's over here May, I guess she was still asleep on my shoulder after the teleportation like you" Alphonse says as he comes back to us.

"Al, thank goodness you're back, pleaseeeee talk with May, I can't be near her right now, I've kinda gotten freaked out because of something I learned from my master regarding her" I say as I push him toward her and zip over to Ling, eager to try and shift the conversation in a new direction.

"You still have yet to explain what happened to me Edward, why do I have a tail, and why did I not suffer brain damage despite the force of the impact I endured?" Ling asks, catching me off guard. Then the prince held his hands up to his face, lowered them, and clenched with uncertainty.

"What has your wretched stone turned me into?" Ling asks weakly, his tone indicating he was worried about his change. I knew that it was time to start explaining, and it would be a long story.

"May, you need to hear this too, I'm going to be telling Ling some stuff involving what happened to him yesterday, and it'd be best you hear it too, its quite the tale" I say with a smile as I use my alchemy to manipulate photons and create holograms of the sky.

"Mankind has often wondered if we're alone in the universe, if our planet is the only one of consequence. I'm here to tell you that not only are we likely not alone in this universe, but that our universe is not alone amongst an potentially infinite multitude of others, each with their own Earth or version of it. My journey, which plunged me, plunged all of us, into this grand adventure, began in this realm, on this world, right after the explosion at the 5th Laboratory just over five weeks ago in Central City" I start as I show them a projection of the Dragon Ball Z universe's version of terra firma, with its towering megalopolises, floating cities among the clouds, the Lookout, and flying technology and people.

_5 hours later_

**Ling Yao**

I'd heard all of his story; about the history of the world he was taken to, the ancient races of beings and the true nature of Ki, yet I still could barely believe what I'd been told, let alone how along with Edward having been transformed into one of them, now I had been too. The others were in total shock from this story, Greed and his chimera gang too, their jaws just slack with awe. As for me though, now that the information had sunk in, I began feeling giddy and leapt to my feet.

"(Laughing) THIS IS OUTSTANDING! As a Saiyan, I don't even need a philosopher's stone or a homunculus now, I have all the political pull I need within my own body, this new, invincible, alien body. I don't know why I was so worried earlier, this accident turned out to be rather wonderful, I can just march up to the emperor, flash a bit of my new might, and he'll just step down so he can retire in peace and-YIIIII!" I scream, my speech interrupted as Edward grabbed my tail.

"Lets see you do that now smartass" Edward grins as he holds it roughly in his grasp, his move draining me of all my strength, paralyzing me, making me hopelessly vulnerable.

"What…the hell, I thought Saiyans were invincible, 20 bombs blew up in your face and you didn't even get a scratch" I argue with a wheeze, barely able to talk I felt so weak.

"Now you're as weak, and almost as vulnerable as an average man, so what can you do hot shot?" Edward asks rhetorically. He was right, in this state, it would be easy to be killed. Suddenly, I felt Scar's Ki move, and he was behind Edward, grabbing his tail.

"Ed, no!" I scream, worried that this would give the murderer a chance to escape; with Edward paralyzed he could kill him and we'd all be in danger if he got out of the restraint covering his arm.

"What…was that?" Edward asks with an annoyed expression.

"But…your tail; it weakened the eastern boy, why are you not immobilized?" Scar asks with confusion, as I notice Edward isn't even twingeing.

"Well unlike Ling, I received training to overcome that one flaw in saiyan biology, so now I have no weak points, not even my tail, so if you don't want me to show you how many ways there are to put your body through "kill me to end the pain" agony, you'll sit down on that couch, and not move a muscle other than your lungs unless I give you permission you traitorous asshole" he says as his body glows with a light red aura. Without a word, the once terrifying Ishvalan silently slumped into the sofa with defeat, and who could blame him? With the level of power Edward had, he was undoubtedly, the most dangerous man in the universe. Upon releasing my tail, I found I was able to move once again, and sighed with relief as I felt the pain go away.

"Edward, you said that your powers are mainly from manipulation of Ki energy, which is chi, life force, right?" May suddenly remarks, catching everyone off guard.

"Yeah…of course, why do you ask?" Edward remarks with confusion, he was right, it was confusing me as well, what was a member of my rival clan getting at with such a question.

"Well, all living creatures have chi, so that means any sentient being, with training, could gain the same powers you have, even if not on the same scale, right?" May continues.

"Well yeah, that's right, that's the source of my invulnerability, shielding my body with a film of Ki, you guys might be able to sense it if you focus" Edward replies with a smirk as he holds out his hand.

"Wait, so you mean the bottom line is, in order to be invincible like you…I have to undergo rigorous training?" I interrupt, causing Edward to give me an annoyed look.

"Haven't you been paying attention idiot? Yes, intense training!" Edward snaps.

"How long does it take?" May comments.

"To get to my level of mastery, 2, 3 years, depending on your natural affinity to Ki, some are more in tune with life energy than others depending on genetics, environment, and culture, like yours; in fact, I bet, any one from Xing who can sense Ki, even on a novice level, would be able to acquire super human abilities before the new year rolls around" Edward says with a smile.

"Then I humbly beg you, please teach my servants and I the ways of Ki, Master Edward" I say with praise as I bow to him. Upon returning to sitting on my knees, I saw the big alchemist was looking at me like I was crazy.

"Um…Ok, you know what, here is my answer in three simple words, wanna hear em?" Edward asks as he curls his finger, indicating me to lean my ear in closer so he could whisper something. As I inched closer, I put my lobe right up to his face, and waited for the answer.

"Alright, ready?" he whispers, causing me to nod in agreement. With a deep breathe, he prepared to tell me.

"NO…FRIGGIN…WAYYYYYYYYYYY!" he bellows, sending me crashing into the opposing wall with a crash.

"(Groan) How could I be so gullible?" I moan loudly as I impact into the wall briefly, then feel myself flaking off, and landing hard on the floor.

"Young Lord!" Fu shouts as he and Lan Fan rush to my side, having been to shocked to speak earlier after Edward's tales.

"Are you alright Master Ling, did he hurt you?" my most beautiful servant asks gently, her mask that had been repaired yesterday by Alphonse covering her face once more.

"(Moan of pain) Yes, but just a little, I only flew 10 feet" I grunt as I pick myself up.

"Ok, maybe I overreacted a little, but I have always wanted to sass off Ling, sometimes you just don't know when to get a clue, I mean, look at this!" Edward screams as he holds out his right hand, an crackling, red orb that shone with a menacing crimson glow hovering over his palm.

"(Scream) T-Tha-Tha-Tha-That's like what he used to vaporize the structure in the desert!" the lizard man known as Bido shrieks as he hides behind Greed.

"You see? That's the thing about this power, apart from making you feared by everyone, you become a threat; even I know this, I have this power, and even I'm afraid of what I could do with it. Do you know…how hard that is, to control the urge to just…cut loose and destroy? If you haven't felt that saiyan bloodlust yet, you will Ling, count on it, and be glad that for the time being, you're not powerful enough to be dangerous to everyone unless you get indignantly angered, when a tiny portion of your potential power is momentarily unlocked, like it did just before you knocked yourself out during the fight yesterday" Edward argues heatedly, turning his back to me, causing me to get mad.

"And what gives you the right to decide that without even testing us, I mean, you just assume we'd abuse this power? You know what that gem said to me after I grabbed it, do you Edward?" I berate, causing his eyes to widen.

"It spoke to you, what did it say?" he asks eagerly as he whips around and grabs my shoulders.

"For your information, the stone spoke to me, and it said, "You have been deemed worthy, and your request shall be granted". That's how I became a saiyan" I reply, causing him to look at me with shock. After several moments of silence, he seemed to get a eureka look on his face, and nodded to the silent Alphonse, who was busy petting Xiao-Mei to keep her calm.

"Ling…what did you do when you held my stone, what happened while you held it and you heard my master's voice?" he asks with a deadly serious tone.

"I…I think it was something about wanting to be able to protect the innocent, defend those I care about" I reply, causing him to shout in exasperation.

"Great, back to square one with the gem, the one way we're guaranteed to be able to connect my brother's soul from the armor back to his body" Edward shouts angrily, stomping the floor in frustration, causing the house to rock.

"Hey, easy, I'm still healing brother, and Granny said you're rebuilding the whole house if you damage it" an upset but gentle voice says from the kitchen.

"Who is that? He sounds dreamy" May remarks, damn she seemed fickle.

"Oh, body, I didn't realize you were back from the garden yet" Alphonse says as he gets up and creaks toward the kitchen.

"Yeah, I was trying to use the alchemy, since you finally recovered your memories of the gate, I guess I just don't have enough strength yet" a tall, lanky blonde kid with short hair says as he walks in, blue jeans and a white collared shirt adorned his thin frame.

"Who the hell is that? I thought it was just us and the old lady" Greed says irritably.

"Oh, I suppose introductions are in order; everyone, I'd like you to me my brother Alphonse's physical body, AKA, Body Al" Edward says sheepishly as the thin boy bows respectfully.

"Hey, how's it going everyone, by the way, your other brother Gluttony is in the forest getting his lunch, so he'll be back in a little bit Greed" the so called "Body Al" replies, causing us all to stare.

**Scar**

As they all talked excitedly about how Al's body was separated from his soul, yet it still functioned, I groaned, wishing there was a way to give Edward what he deserves. Sadly, with his invulnerability, and my hand encased in a near indestructible metal, I could do nothing.

"Yeah, we hope to find a way to reunite my soul with my body so I can finally feel and eat again" the armor boy says enthusiastically.

"I'll indeed be very happy when I'm whole again" the short haired blonde kid says with a smile.

"Yeah, then Al can get back to life, maybe meet his dream girl along the way" Edward chuckles as he throws his arm around the armor suit and his brother.

Suddenly, I felt a surge of memories, of my brother, Michael, how we used to be so close, even till the bitter end. That last family photograph, my father, Michael and me, we had our arms around each other, just like Edward and his brother and body were doing now.

"Michael…why did you have to waste time grabbing that damn notebook?" I mutter to myself.

Without warning, I found myself hoisted up by my throat, and Edward was staring me in the eyes.

"What was that Scar?" he asks, expecting me to confess. Likely, he already knew, so I decided to go ahead and repeat it so he'd hear.

"I said I wish I knew why my brother bothered to grab that damn notebook 7 years ago just before we tried to flee Ishval. If he hadn't wasted time to get it, we'd probably have all made it out alive and-"

"Wait, back up, the notebook, do you mean the notebook with his research on alchemy and alkahestry?" Edward remarks as he interrupts me, causing my eyes to widen.

"How the hell did you know about the contents of my brother's research?" I growl, wondering if maybe he knew more about the alchemist who had killed my family than he let on.

"I know everything Scar; I know about who killed your family, how the notebook is hidden in a cabin up north near Fort Briggs, how you were originally planning to go retrieve it eventually with Dr. Marcoh after you'd freed him from the prison beneath Central, and how we were going to go up there to meet the general of Briggs when Slo…(Gasps deeply) OH DAMN IT, I NEARLY FORGOT ABOUT SLOTH!" Edward bellows as he drops me like a toy he'd lost interest in.

"Sloth, you mean our brother who's digging the transmutation circle beneath Amestris?" Envy remarks with surprise.

"Yeah, the laziest yet fastest homunculus, duh!" Edward retorts sarcastically.

"Why are you worried about him, I mean, he's just digging the tunnel, he's not to do anything else till that's completed, and that won't be for a while longer" Envy adds as he kicks back on the couch.

"No, you don't understand; thanks to that information I learned from my master, if events follow normal intended pathways as they have, that indicates that soon, he'll accidentally burst into Fort Briggs, and without us there to help he could…CRAP! Everyone, I'm sorry but my brother and I have to leave for Briggs ASAP, it's a potential matter of life and death" he shouts worriedly as I rise up to my feet.

"Hold on! You're not leaving without us, what do you expect us to do, just wait here in this dinky eastern sheep town with that horribly temperamental old woman?" Yoki shouts in protest.

"Call me old again and see what happens baldy!" Penako shouts from the kitchen, causing Yoki to break into a sweat and shut up.

"Anyways, you get my point, also you promised you'd make it up to me for ruining my life Fullmetal, I intend to hold you to your word alien!" he shouts as he points at the boy with an accusative finger.

"Yes, that's true, I did give my word Yoki. Very well, you can come with me, maybe Fort Briggs will toughen you up some, I heard the Ice Queen is good at finding hidden strengths, especially since you can't afford to be weak there; she lives by the motto "only the strong survive", she has no mercy for wimps" Edward replies, causing Yoki to sweat even more.

"On second thought, maybe I can go with Scar to meet Dr. Marcoh, after all, I'm sure there is some interesting information regarding the famous Crystal Alchemist" Yoki says as he holds his hands up in defense.

"You're right, I'd forgotten about Marcoh too, though due to the change in events its likely he's unharmed, but we need to check and make sure that he's ok. However-" Edward begins as he turns to me, and glares.

"-If I let you have free reign Scar, you'd better be damn sure I'll kill you the moment I find out you've committed even one single new murder you bastard. I can sense Ki across the world and beyond, so running won't save you as I've proven, am I clear?" Edward finishes, as he holds a glowing fist to my face.

"Yes alchemist" I say quietly.

"Ahem, care to repeat that, Scar?" he continues, causing me to sigh, knowing what he wanted.

"(Groan) Yes, Major Elric" I drone begrudgingly, the boy smiling after I'd used his proper title.

"Good, you are hereby charged with going to this town, Haimburgin, its between Pleonuk and Kaumafy, both on the routes that lead to either Eastern City or Central. So, who's gonna go with Scar besides Yoki, cause they'll need extra protection just in case" Edward asks with a lighter tone.

"My servants and I would volunteer, but he's a confirmed mass murderer, and we still don't trust him yet" Ling remarks.

"I refuse to work for Scar anytime soon either, he withheld the truth that he's a killer from a little girl!" May says angrily as she closes her eyes and turns her nose up, as her little panda growling at me; a pity, deep down I had a soft spot for cats and other similar creatures.

Then, in the doorway, I saw him; the fat homunculus that had tried to eat me weeks ago in East City! He closed the distance between him and May in moments, and was standing silently behind her, the girl suddenly realizing the presence that had arrived as her face contorted with fear.

"A LITTLE GIRRRRRRLLLLL!" the fat thing shouts elatedly, his cavernous and disgusting mouth opening wide to reveal the ouroboros tattoo on his tongue. May instantly began to zip around the room in a frantic attempt to avoid the inhumanly agile thing.

"You'll make an excellent appetizer!" he shouts as he narrowly misses the chance to grab her.

"Edward, save me!" she screams as she jump kicks off a wall again, the spot she was touching moments ago being promptly bitten by the gluttonous devil, who resumed the chase promptly.

"(Sharp Whistle) Gluttony, FREEZE!" Edward shouts, causing the fat man to stop himself just before he can jump at May again and fall flat on his face.

"(Groan) Not for eating?" he says woozily as he rubs his head.

"Not for eating" Edward says as he shakes his head.

"Oh…ok then, hmmm?" the creature says dejectedly, until he notices me, and his eyes brighten again.

"The Ishvalan, I know I can eat him, everyone wants Scar dead!" the thing shouts as he leaps at me, his maw opening once more in preparation to consume me.

That was the end of the line, I had to find a way to break this restraint, and defend myself, cause I severely doubted these people really care whether I live or die.

Then I remembered Edward's response to Greed's earlier question regarding the composition of Adamantium, the very substance my hand was incased within.

"Iron, its an Iron based alloy, and I know the make-up of Iron!" I scream as I focus on the ferrous bonds inside the alloy, and separate them to create a mass of beryllium atoms, pushing apart the other components of the alloy, and breaking the coating that covered my skin. An instant later, I grasped onto the incoming homunculus's face with my freed right hand, and destroyed his face, splattering blood everywhere. Edward, was needless to say, very shocked.

"Scar, you're good, a bit too good, that's a problem" Edward sighs, as I feel a light weight attach to my recently released flesh. Upon hearing a clang, I began looking down, and found my right hand was now covered by a new metal, one very shiny and lightweight, and had a strange lock around the wrist area it coated.

"Congratulations, you are looking at an element that is extraterrestrial in origin, much like myself" he says with a smirk. I instantly tried to use my destruction against it, but after several seconds, I found it was lacking in any elements I was familiar with, I didn't know how it was put together!

"Again, that's an element, a pure, atomic element with its own unique structure chump; its called Vibranium, and it absorbs kinetic energy directed at it, that means hitting Vibranium only makes the stuff even stronger, so its nearly as durable as adamantium, with additional properties that are surprising and quite beneficial for a variety of uses" Edward continues, ending my now admittedly futile efforts to re-free my hand, there was no way I could decompose an element that I had no atomic knowledge of.

"Now, Gluttony, hear me and hear me well, you voracious fatso; Scar, luckily for him, is not available for consumption at this time, he is my prisoner, and I expect him to be defended, not devoured, am I clear?" he asks as he bends down and looks into the regenerating face of the beast.

"(Groan) Yes, understood Edward, but I need something, I couldn't find much in the woods, and you told me the sheep, dogs, cats, pets, and people weren't for eating period, so I've only had 4 foxes, 3 rabbits, and a boar, I'm still hungry!" the fat homunculus whines.

"Oh get over it, you're almost always hungry, so you need to quell your desire to just gobble everything up and be patient, got it?" Edward retorts sharply, causing the fat one to nod in understanding.

"Ok, and the other new guests aren't for eating either?" Gluttony asks, apparently a final request.

"Yes, they're new friends, under no circumstance are you to eat even a fingernail off of them" Edward finishes.

"Got it, I'll just wait then" he says quietly, plopping onto his ass with a frown, sighing about how hungry he was to himself.

"Alright, as I was saying before, who will volunteer to go with Scar and secure Dr. Marcoh if he's ok?" Edward repeats, causing the shade wearing Greed to raise his hand.

"My men and I volunteer, we're all criminals, even if we're not quite as bad, save myself" the smooth talking homunculus says calmly.

"Very well then, I shall entrust the key to his shackle with you Greed, only take it off if absolutely necessary, otherwise, just call for Pride to get you guys out of there" Edward says with a smile as he hands a small, rectangular piece of plastic to the man.

"But, this is plastic" Greed deadpans, and for good reason; what kind of moron would make a lock that only requires a tiny rectangle to decouple.

"Its an electronic keycard, very advanced computer technology, far beyond anything known of in Amestris or this world at this point in time; its got a coded, magnetic strip that is scanned with a laser sensor, and thus, cannot be cracked by tumbler manipulation or lock picks, without this exact keycard, the only ways Scar will be getting that off are as follow: me tearing it off with my bare hands, as I' am strong enough to overpower the material, figure out the atomic structure of Vibranium without my knowledge, unlikely, figure out how to create an exact copy of the keycard, even more unlikely, or finally, sacrifice the shackled area by dismembering it" Edward says succinctly, causing Greed to smile.

"So in other words, he won't be causing any great trouble anytime soon, nice" the jacket wearing freak says with a grin.

"But, since you might need to allow him use of his hand for an emergency, which might present him an opportunity to escape, have this on hand to place on his neck while the shackle is removed" Edward adds as a circular band made of the same metal and a small oval shaped device appear from thin air into Greed's hands.

"Whoa, is that an radio-transmitter remote for the collar?" Dolcetto remarks as he rushes up to see the device.

"Indeed, it's a remote, electro-shock collar, one press of that red button, and Scar goes down like a tranquilized bear, green button is for detaching, needs three consecutive taps within a 1 second span to unlock, prevents accidents" Edward says proudly as he hands the devices to Roa, who pockets them in his big coat.

"Good, now that that's taken care of, you guys will head for Haimburgin to determine if Marcoh is still there, and bring him along if he that's the case, with Scar picking up his brother's research notes on the way to rendezvous at Fort Briggs with me and the rest of our group, am I clear men?" Edward states militaristically, causing them to salute and shout "sir yes sir!".

"Excellent, that means we move out immediately, and you're coming with us Gluttony" Edward remarks harshly, causing the fat one to rush over to his side promptly.

"Wait, move now, but its lunch time!" Ling whines.

"We'll eat once we get there, now come on, everyone in my group grab on, and everyone headed to Haimburgin get a hold of Pride so he can transport your group" Edward shouts as the people from Xing and the armor boy rush to his side and grab on, along with Envy and Gluttony. After several minutes, the shadowy demon boy appeared from the floor. After a short discussion with Edward about emergencies and the like, he opened a new one, and within moments of its creation, I felt myself being dragged in and the world above me vanished.

**Edward Elric**

With Scar under control, I sighed, and smiled, looking at Alphonse and his body happily.

"You wanna know something, I was terrified this whole time bro" I say as I hug the two bodies of my dear sibling.

"But you're the most powerful man in the universe, how could you be scared?" Armor Al remarks with confusion.

"I was scared of losing one of my last two blood relatives I have in the world, you and dad are the last family members, It'd break my heart if either of you died, just like mom's death did for all of us" I sob as I hold them tightly.

"Brother, its ok, we're here, and we're not gonna die, we swore on that when we started this journey to get our bodies back" Al's body says as he and the armor body hug me in return. After several minutes of emotional outpouring, I sighed and used my alchemy to evaporate my tear remnants, then turned back to face the foreigners from Xing.

"Alright everyone, its time to head to Fort Briggs at the border between Amestris and Drachma; micro hag, we're headed for the North, be sure to let Winry know, we might be heading that way soon!" I state to my group, shouting to Penako.

"Make sure your human companions don't catch their death in that bitter cold, and take care!" she snaps back, with an edge of care in his otherwise harsh tone.

"We'll be back as soon as possible, so make sure to keep Al's body safe, and that he practices his recently acquired alchemy powers so he can defend you two just incase of an emergency; ready guys?" I say as a finisher, and put my hand out for everyone to touch. They promptly placed their hands in the circle, eliciting a smile from me, and I began to teleport our bodies.

"Wait…did he say we're going to the North?" Ling blurts, apparently having just realized that. An instant later, we fully deconstructed into tachyons and vanished from the living room, leaving Al's body and Penako behind to wait on us.


	26. Frozen FaceOff

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 26: Frozen Face-Off**

**Ling Yao**

After appearing in the north, I realized just how cold it was, and began to shiver with chills. We were in the middle of nowhere, just surrounding by pure white.

"Well, at least this is the coldest place in the country, it can't drop any lower" I remark, causing Edward to laugh.

"Yeah, you wish; if a blizzard hits, you're gonna see just how cold Briggs really gets" he says as he floats over the ground with a smile.

Several minutes later, I got my taste of the quickest weather change I'd ever seen. In less than 30 seconds, the winds kicked in, and the snow began to fall even harder, causing the temperature to drop at least 50 degrees further.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I bellow with agony, as I feel my flesh beginning to freeze solid.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLACE, ITS LIKE THE LAND HAS A MIND OF ITS OWN!" I shout as I desperately try to warm myself up.

"That's the north for ya, biting cold, and automail has to be crafted of different materials up here or it's a danger to your body, and even then its still dangerous" Edward says calmly with a smile.

"Hey, how come you're not complaining about the temperature? It must be at least 40 below zero here!" I shout, as my wards nod in agreement, shivering just as much as me.

"Well, once you can control your own Ki, you'll never complain about natural temperature levels again, for now, you'll need these" he laughs as he forms four thick coats, sets of gloves, ear muffs, water proof thermal pants, and hats with his mysterious, motionless alchemy, each article black and blue in variations, except for May's, which were pink and blue. After several minutes, we were bundled up, and found that they weren't warming us up fast enough.

"Ed, we're not regaining the heat we lost, can you help us darling?" May begs, causing him to groan in annoyance.

"Check the front pockets of your coats, there is a dial in there with an internal electrical heating system, you can adjust it, its got an electric battery, and can be recharged, now quiet, I gotta sense around for the Briggs fortress, I have no idea where we landed" Edward says as he closes his eyes.

"WHAT, YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE WE ARE!" I screech, causing him to shout and nearly back hand me with his reflexes.

"Ling! I thought you were one of the soldiers, I coulda broke your neck you idiot, never interrupt me when I'm trying to focus my Ki sense!" he shouts as his fist stops less than a quarter of an inch from my nose.

"Sorry, its just so damn cold, and you said you were taking us there" I pant as my heart rate begins to step down after nearly jumping out my throat, feeling lucky at how narrowly I had avoided getting a blow from Edward to my face.

"Hey guys, where's Alphonse?" Lan Fan shouts above the blizzard.

"What? OH DAMN IT, ALPHONSE, WHY DO YOU ALWAYS GET LOST!" Edward bellows angrily, as his aura flares back into existence, the snow around him melting.

"The little girl May Chang is gone too!" Fu adds, causing Edward to remarkably calm down.

"That's actually some good news, I'd prefer to not hear her pointless swooning over me" Ed laughs.

"She could die out here! She might be from a rival clan, but she's still just a child" Lan Fan screams.

"Come to think of it, I can't find Gluttony either" Envy adds as he looks around.

"Will you all relax! Ok look, I can sense everyone with Ki sense but Al, because of his soul being bonded to an armor suit, only biological beings and certain special races of energy or mechanical ones have Ki to detect. To further put you at ease, Al is fine out here, he doesn't get cold, hungry, he doesn't even have to breathe in his armor body, so he's fine. If you give me a moment to concentrate, I'll go them all, so quiet" Edward says firmly, silencing us quickly as he closed his eyes.

**Alphonse Elric**

After having been separated from the group with May and Gluttony, we kept close so we wouldn't all get split up even more. Holding May's hand, I felt strangely protective of her, and I couldn't explain it. Gluttony's whines about how hungry he was though, were not welcome.

"I'm starving, is there anything to eat around here?" he pants.

"Well, there are said to be bears up here in the Briggs Mountains, but they grow over 15 feet tall and-"

"FOOD! BEAR BUFFET!" Gluttony screams with joy as he shoots off in a random direction, jumping like a grasshopper until he'd vanished in the whiteout.

"GLUTTONY! GET BACK HERE!" I bellow, as I crouch down to make sure May was still beside me.

"Good riddance, he's a rude guy, he tried to eat me" May pouts as she crosses her arms, Xiao-Mei doing the same.

"Look, I know he's got a long way to go, but that's not him being evil, Gluttony has an incredible metabolism, he must have tons of food before being satisfied, plus he is also an embodiment of the nature of greed, which I bet even he dislikes, cause he gets hunger pains real quickly. Please try to understand him May, how would you treat strangers if you were always hungry and could eat anything?" I argue, causing her to sigh in shame.

"You're right, it must be awful to always hunger, never getting a good break from the gnawing feeling in his stomach; however, if he eats me, I will not hesitate to kill him, I hope you understand Alpho…(gasp)" May replies, suddenly pausing for some reason.

"What, what is it, are you ok?" I shout as I pick her up, worried the cold may have begun to get to her, for a moment, the whiteout lessened, and I saw she was blushing fiercely.

"Yes but…I just remembered, seeing the blonde boy back in Resembool; is that really your original body, that your soul was taken from?" May inquires softly, the roar of the blizzard having begun to lessen some.

"Yeah, it is, it was very malnourished when Edward recovered it from the realm of Truth, but my body has recovered nicely thanks to brother's treatments, it's pretty much back to my old charming self" I say nervously, wondering why she was speaking of this subject at a time like this.

"Yeah, I bet you have a fiery temper like him too when you get mad" she comments under her breath.

"How rude, I' am not like my brother! I don't get a scary face, or blow up like he does over pointless things like height, and I certainly don't treat women the way he does, I'm a gentleman" I say proudly, as I hear her gasp some more.

Wait, why did I get defensive when she compared me and my brother, I couldn't be jealous…could I?

"Really, you're a genuine gentleman?" she asks breathlessly.

"I sure am, I'm not even sure how I learned how to be one, but its who I turned out to be" I continue, wondering why I kept talking like I had to point out such things to a girl that I currently barely knew.

"Wow…a real gentleman, that's so dreamy…(sigh) but Edward is the perfect specimen of manliness, who am I supposed to choose?" May says with a depressed tone. I finally realized why she was speaking of such things, she must not have really known about Edward and Winry.

"Um, May, there is something you need to know, its about Winry, from Rush Valley, the blonde girl. You see, she and Edward-"

"AAAHHHHHHHH!" Gluttony screams from nearby, his cries seemingly of pain.

"Its Gluttony, hang on" I shout as I begin to run in the direction the noise came from. After several minutes, I found him, but he had a thick gash going down most of his body, and his blood was freezing, halting his healing.

"Gluttony, what happened?" I ask, hoping he could tell me.

"A bear, a bear attacked me, and I'm still hungry!" Gluttony whines, causing us to feel embarrassed.

"Um, Al…you can put me down now, the snow storm is starting to let up" May says nervously, and I quickly sat her on her feet. If I had my body back, I'm sure I'd have turned beet red by now.

Suddenly, a heavy set of footfalls landed behind us, and we all turned around to face the source, seeing a towering silhouette, hot breath steaming out of its bared mouth.

"BEARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" we all scream in unison, as I clap my hands and slap them on the ground to form an Ice Spear, Gluttony breaking off the frozen blood and healing his wound.

However, suddenly the bear raised its right arm, and light reflected off it, and I realized what we were really up against, May and I quickly dodging its blow as it slammed the ground where we'd stood with its giant limb, losing my spear in the process.

"That's not a bear, it's a man, that's automail!" I shout as the snowfall begins to lessen more, and I get a good luck at his arm. It wasn't designed like a human limb, but more like a combination of a chainsaw and a clamp. Using his flesh hand, he grabbed a launcher and shot a net toward Gluttony, trapping him for the time being.

"What kind of automail is that, its not like any I've ever seen before!" I shout, causing the man to growl and look at me.

"So you're with the spy, I knew he wouldn't have come alone" he shouts in a gruff voice as he holds the giant saw clamp up again.

"I asked a question! I have a friend who makes automail, but I've never seen something that big and tacky!" I shout, causing him to snarl and leap at me with surprising agility.

"FOOL! Obviously you don't know a good weapon when you see one. This right here is Combat Automail Model M1913A, the crocodile! Now surrender peacefully you miserable Drachman spies or I'll show you exactly what this baby can do!" he shouts angrily.

"What? Wait, we're not spies I'm- WHAAAAAA!" I shout as I narrowly avoid another blow.

"Please, listen to me, I'm not from Drachma, we're with my brother, the Fullmetal Alchemist!" I scream, hoping he'd understand.

"Yeah, I bet; now surrender peacefully, or I'll leave you _in_ pieces!" he shouts, leaping at me again, this time successfully latching onto my right arm with his crocodile automail, pulling a ripcord on his arm and causing the blades to begin rotating.

"I'll hack you up piece by piece till I get to the man inside" he growls as it begins to scuff my armor.

"Hey, let go, this is my body!" I scream, worried that he might accidentally begin to damage me after some time.

"Then surrender you spy and I'll spare your life!" he shouts angrily.

"I'm not a spy! Please, I' am with the Fullmetal Alchemist, he's looking for me, we got separated in the blizzard, he's gotta be nearby!' I plead, hoping he'd listen.

"A likely story, you Drachman spies will say anything to save your own skin" he retorts as I hear my armor begin to crack.

"Alright, I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice" I shout as I clap my free palm into the one on my trapped arm, then tap his limb.

After several seconds, nothing had changed, and the man looked at me with an annoyed expression.

"Was that supposed to hurt?" he asks with an irritated tone.

"What, but your arm, why didn't it break, isn't automail made of iron?" I gasp, as I feel my arm beginning to near breaking.

"Alphonse, get ready to dodge!" May shouts as a series of kunai knives land near the man's feet, dropping another set near her in the snow, she placed her hands on the snow, and with surges of alchemic energy, an ice fist struck the automail man's saw arm and knocked us apart, but broke my own limb in the process, the armor cracking completely from the elbow down. After another series of knives implanted near his automail limb, ice formed around it, and pinned him to the ground.

"(Sigh) Thanks May, that was a quick save, but brother is gonna be pissed that I got damaged even with my new alchemy powers" I say as I look at my torn right arm.

"Not bad, you guys are pretty good, but you forgot something" the man says with a smirk as I hear steam noises coming from his arm.

"My automail has an engine and exhaust system, and it runs hot!" he laughs as the ice on his limb melts off, and he leaps to his feet.

"I expected such a move, thanks for letting me gain ground, May, now!" I shout, hoping she'd get the idea. With a nod, she tossed more knives, the first set landing in the ground exposed from the melted snow. Using her strange alchemy again, she caused a large granite fist to erupt out and grab him by his waist, trapping him at last.

"Good luck melting that automail man; thanks May, you really are a life saver" I pant as I look at her and us my surviving hand to give her a thumbs up.

"Yeah, we make a good team" she says with a smile.

"Can I eat him? He attacked us, I want to eat!" Gluttony shouts, having finally freed himself by consuming the net.

"But you just ate" May deadpans.

"Not full, barely had anything to chew it was so small, can I eat him?" Gluttony begs.

"No, we need him alive to ask questions" I say firmly, causing him to whimper.

"You're impressive spies, I'll give you that, but its all over now" the man shouts, as I hear guns cock all around us, the snow having almost completely stopped falling for the moment, allowing an unobstructed view for a long distance in the immediate area. Putting our hands up, I motioned for Gluttony to do the same, and we gave the appearance of surrendering.

"Wait…the Briggs Mountain Guard, but that would mean…-" I start as I look around.

"Buccaneer! Who are they?" a harsh woman's voice asks staunchly.

"Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there General Armstrong, I apologize for the disturbance" the man says as he bows respectfully. Turning around to face the direction that the voice had come from, I found a huge wall, and up on a balcony nearby, was a woman with long blonde hair, and a man with white hair and dark glasses standing beside her.

"I asked you a question Captain, who are they!" Armstrong bellows.

"Drachman spies obviously, they were snooping around and looking very suspicious, Sir" Captain Buccaneer says as he salutes the general.

"You think everyone who comes up here unofficially is a spy Buccaneer, Cuff them and get bring them inside" she shouts authoritatively, turning her back. Using his automail arm, he smashed the thin column that was the alchemy hand's arm, and landed on his feet without missing a beat and strode over casually.

"With pleasure, uh…stick out your arm spy, we need two to cuff you" Buccaneer says with a confused look as he grabs what's left of my right arm attached to the armor and peers inside the socket.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY BROTHER YOU ASSHOLE!" Edward's voice bellows, causing the ground to shake slightly.

"What the, who's there now!" Armstrong shouts as she turns around, then freezes her gaze at the sky. Following it, I saw why she was so shocked.

There, in his human disguise, was Edward, blasting through the air like a rocket straight to Buccaneer! Moments after he turned around to face the source of the noise, my brother landed his foot right in the captain's chest, and sent him flying 50 feet into a snow bank.

"Freeze! Put your hands over your head whatever you are" the guards shout as they point their guns at Edward.

"How dare you point your peashooters at my friends, especially my brother!" he bellows as he raises his hand, causing red lightning to shoot from his hands, and strike just at the marksman's feet, making them jump in fear.

"Don't just gawk you idiots, shoot first, learn answers later, FIRE!" Buccaneer screams from the snow bank, causing the men to regain their composure.

"He's right, all men, fire at will!" the guard who'd spoken before shouts. A moment later, they all began to shoot. As expected, brother's Ki shield effortlessly absorbed all gunfire like peas from a straw, the bullets deforming upon impact. Once emptied of ammo, the men gasped in horror, as they saw Edward smiling.

"Is that all?" Edward asks with a smirk as the bullets float off him and begin to melt into a molten sphere, that quickly began to reform into new bullets, which fell into his left palm. Taking one and holding it in-between his right thumb and index finger, he laughed.

"You know, these things are only deadly because of their kinetic energy being concentrated onto such a small area, thus the basic principle that makes guns so deadly, but that doesn't mean they have to be propelled by expanding gas from the explosion of smokeless powder in a confined chamber; I wonder if I can flick it with the same level of force your pistols produce, shall we find out?" Edward taunts as he curls his thumb and fingers up to prepare a counter shot.

"What the, how the hell did he-"

With a loud classic ricochet noise, the man who'd ordered Edward to freeze earlier had his pistol shot out of his hand by Edward's flicked bullet, cutting his ramble short as he grabbed his likely aching hand.

"Son of a bitch, reload quickly before he can-"

With another three pinging ricochets, the last guardsmen were disarmed, all clutching their hands in pain from the force Edward's flicked bullets imparted to their bodies. A moment later, Edward had face planted all four of them, then lifted Buccaneer by his crocodile arm and tossed him into the wall of Fort Briggs with a clang.

"Come on chunky, don't tell me that's all you got!" Edward taunts, causing Buccaneer to flip back on his feet, his face contorted with rage.

"CHUNKY? I'll PUT YOUR HEAD THROUGH THE WALL YOU FUCKING BRAT!" the captain screams as he lunges at Edward with pure rage in his eyes.

As he neared Edward however, brother suddenly moved, and was a foot out of the way.

"I doubt that, by the way, that seems heavy, let me help you with it!" Edward shouts as he tears out Buccaneer's arm, causing him to scream.

"Bet that hurt didn't it? Don't worry, I kept the port in tact chunky, and I'll hold onto your arm, keep it nice and safe" Edward laughs as he holds the crocodile over his head in triumph.

"Why you…that's it, get him men!" Buccaneer shouts, causing dozens of new guards to pop out from nearby snow piles, pointing rifles at Edward.

"HA! Please, you think just cause you got longer peashooters it'll make a difference?" Ed brags as he puts a hand on his face and chuckles.

"Laugh while you can, cause these men have the latest from R & D, diamond tipped armor piercing rounds, they can punch halfway through Fort Brings from the outermost wall, that's over 100 feet of cumulative, reinforced steel, so whatever is shielding you won't stop these" Buccaneer says with a confident smile.

"Shoot me and see how wrong you are, hell, I'll even catch every bullet" Edward smirks, causing the captain to snarl.

"OPEN FIRE!" he bellows, causing dozens of rifles to crack as they sounded off. Cringing, I hoped they were wrong, and Ed had this under control. After 10 seconds, I removed my hand from my face and looked to see if my brother was injured.

As I suspected, I'd worried for nothing; standing there with 36 deformed shells on his skin, he growled and they fell to the snow, which was now rapidly melting as his aura, crimson red and blazing wildly flared to life.

"How the hell did he do that, who is this kid?" Buccaneer shouts worriedly.

Moments later, he got his answer, and Edward smiled as he begin to grow in size, reverting to his adult form, tall and buff, with his clothes tightening to accommodate his true musculature and size, needless to say, all the soldiers were terrified upon realizing who they were fighting.

"Its him, the monster!" one of the recently revealed snipers screams with a panicked tone.

"But how, he was just sighted in Central earlier today, how'd he get here?" another screams.

"Reports said this guy can fly, and incredibly fast, faster than sound even, not to mention his invulnerability was just proven; Captain Buccaneer, permission to retreat, please!" another shouts with desperation.

"Permission denied! We'll fight him, he has to have a weakness no one else has noticed! Besides, the general is watching, and you know what she does to deserters, you can't retreat unless she ok it, you want her angry?" Buccaneer shouts, causing the men to shake their heads.

"Maybe you chumps aren't getting the picture" Edward remarks with a smirk, as his aura starts to die down, till its gone, all the snow for miles having evaporated from the intense energy he'd emitted.

Suddenly, his eyes began to glow crimson, the glow focused on his pupils.

"Wait, brother, DON'T!" I bellow, hoping he'd listen to me as I realized what he was about to do.

With a sound effect similar to sizzling of some kind from ionization, twin beams of Ki energy, focused into laser fine points burst from his corneas, gradually streaming across the land like a piece of chalk being pulled across the board, leaving broken, burnt, and fractured ground in its wake, slowly arcing higher toward the mountains Fort Briggs was anchored into. Narrowing avoiding the beam, the soldiers in front of my brother leapt to the side, as it struck the face of the peaks, where the beams blew straight through like a hot coal through paper, the cracks easily over 500 feet in length, their appearance akin to giant claw marks from a monster. As he stopped emitting Ki, the ensuing rock collapse due to the now vaporized matter that had once occupied the new gaps in the local geology made the entire area shake violently for several moments. May, Xiao-Mei, Gluttony and I all huddled together in fear, even though we knew Edward would never harm us on purpose.

"Now, stand down, unless you want me to aim the next beams at the fortress, and I don't want to do that just as much as all of you, I just want to talk to Major General Olivia Mira Armstrong" Edward replies, as all the soldiers but Buccaneer shake and whimper in terror.

"Absolutely not, we don't know what the hell you are, but we'll die before we let you anywhere near our Commanding Officer!" Buccaneer screams defensively.

Laughing, Edward grabbed the crocodile automail he'd gotten from Buccaneer earlier off the ground, and pointed it at them, the arm transforming into a big gun with glowing lights, strange colors, and a gothic design as the arcs of transmutation surged around the former combat automail limb.

"This is called a Nova Burst Cannon, it fires plasma orbs that detonate with a temperature of over 10 billion degrees Fahrenheit, essentially, it's a grenade launcher that fires miniature sun bombs instead of the old pineapples, its powered by a perpetual energy device, and it's a gift to you General" Edward says as he holds it over his head and bows.

"Why would you give me such a powerful weapon? You act as if we have met, or that you expect me to begin trusting you" the general asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Actually, it's a little of both, long story, but please, I can prove I'm the Fullmetal Alchemist, just let me come inside, and we'll talk" Edward replies as he keeps kneeling.

"What if I refuse, what if I consider you too big a liability, a threat to my men and the border of this country, what will you do young man?" the general asks with a frown.

"You'll regret it, I have big news regarding the truth about our country, and its leaders, but its your choice, I don't need your help most likely, I can probably find a way to fix things with the friends I already have, but I heard your men were some of the best, maybe the best military force in Amestris, so just consider that" Edward says with a smirk as he stands up. Several minutes of silence passed, and finally, Armstrong turned her back on Edward.

"You and your friends may come inside, but I want to hear everything involving Amestris!" she shouts, causing Edward to smile genuinely.

"Thank you! Come on guys, lets go" Edward says as he flies over to us, and begins to walk.

"Edward, there you are! Thanks for warming up the place, it was really chilly!" Ling shouts joyfully as his group and Envy rush toward us.

"Freeze!" the snipers shout as they cock their guns again in preparation to fire on them, causing the General to snarl and turn around.

"Wait, don't shoot!" I shout, as Edward snaps right in front of them to block the bullets.

"My brother is right, these people are with me; they're the group I was with that my brother, the fat man, and the little girl got separated from in the blizzard, if they get shot, I'm gonna start tearing up your fort" Edward warns, causing the general to smile.

"Relax, I was about to stop them, the funny man did mention you by name, so I figured he was with you, let them all in men!" Armstrong bellows as she turns around again and walks away from the balcony, likely into the fortress, the white haired man following her.

"Alright kid, come on, you and your friends got invited inside, you should be honored, the Ice Queen rarely lets any one she's never met before personally other than the highly ranked officials just waltz inside Briggs" Buccaneer says as he uses his remaining arm to motion for Ling and the others to be allowed in.

"Luck had nothing to do with it Bucky boy; by the way, you wanna have this for your new arm?" Edward asks with a smile, causing the captain to raise his eyebrow.

"But it's a gun now, not an automail cannon, and-how the hell did you do that?" he remarks as Edward begins to convert it into an automail nova burst cannon, then connects the limb back into Buccaneer's shoulder.

"It will be explained once we're behind closed doors, I'll be telling you a lot of stuff" Edward laughs as he pats the newly made automail weapon.

"I don't know whether to think you're a jerk or a cool fellow, but I gotta admit, I like your style kid" Buccaneer laughs, causing Edward to join him. As the others rushed over and began to walk beside us, the doors were opened, and we stepped into the ironclad walls of Fort Briggs.

**Father**

As my recently arrived Pride told me of what he'd overheard the monster man speaking of, I snarled, knowing that he was mocking my power; he deliberately kept his distance to toy with me! If only I could get a more accurate gauge of his true strength, then I could judge whether or not it would be wise to engage him before my ultimate plan came to fruition.

"Relax my darling, I believe it is time that we had our two speedsters take a crack at this "monster" that took the form of Edward Elric, so your sacrifice's survival can be ensured" the thick voice of the woman I'd come to accept as a new pawn says with her thick, Drachmenian accent.

"Very well, have them emerge at Fort Briggs, then we'll see just how powerful this "monster" is, Pride, go give them the orders" I state, causing him to bow and go rigid as he sends his shadows to the tunnel around the country for contact with my tunneling son and my new accomplice's daughter.


	27. The Truth About This Country

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 27: The Truth About This Country**

**Olivia Mira Armstrong**

As Edward and his friends all got checked on by the doctors, and two of the illegal aliens from Xing were treated for hypothermia, the funny eyed Ling, and the adorable little May, I couldn't help but notice Edward's personality as he talked and laughed with his friends and some of my more open soldiers who had dropped by, it was so confident and powerful, so perfectly resonant with his, for lack of a better phrase, god-like form. I couldn't help but wonder, if maybe, he could…would…no, I couldn't just accept that on what I'd seen from him fighting my men, after all, he had spared their lives and shown a little mercy, he'd have to fight me to prove his true worth. A loud clatter broke my intense thought, and the Xingese prince bounded out of the infirmary closet, panting heavily.

"Ow! For the last time, I'm fine, stop poking me with needles" Ling whines as our doctor laughs at the prince's cat like agility he used to avoid her syringe.

"Kami, knock it off, the man obviously has a fear of needles" I laugh, causing Katherine to snort derisively.

"With all due respect General Armstrong, the aversion of needles, its got a name, Trypanophobia, and it-"

"Enough talk about needles! I'm really not comfortable with them, I'll be sticking to Edward and his superpower healing or alkahestry from now on thank you very much" Ling shouts angrily.

"You heard the prince, he's not to be given anymore needles" Edward says authoritatively.

"Hey, he can't do that! General Armstrong, he can't, he's not my superior" Kami complains as she points at him with a huff.

"I most certainly am! I'm Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist" the man states as he holds out his silver pocket watch and an official document from the Führer, King Bradley.

"What? Give me that! This official document certifies, (begins to mumble the transcript to herself) entitled to ample research funds, (keeps mumbling) and the military rank equivalent to that of a major, signed King Bradley!" Kami screams with disbelief.

"You're joking, this kid holds the rank equivalent of a major?" Buccaneer remarks calmly as he walks in with a strange new automail.

"I have the watch; jealous Bucky?" Edward taunts as he dangles the silver clock.

"You're a cocky little brat you know that? Anyways, this new automail you transformed my old crocodile into, what the hell does it do exactly, and more importantly, how do I work it?" Buccaneer asks with an annoyed tone.

"For the last time, it's a Nova Burst Cannon! That means it charges and fires an orb of super condensed plasma, the same stuff you find in stars, its so hot it melts most substances with the same ease that a hot skillet melts butter, one shot from this at maximum power has an energy density of more than 10 to the 14th joules, it could wipe out an entire army in a single blast, so don't try to mess with it unless I'm around" Edward states, causing my eyes to widen, and Buccaneer to begin sweating, then gasp and rush out the door into the hallway toward the automail room.

"Randall, GET THIS THING OFF ME!" the captain shouts as he slams the door down the hall open to alert Randall to his plight.

"Whoa, I didn't think he'd be that scared, I thought he liked combat automail, that's why I made him a Nova Burst Cannon arm, it was a gift of good will" Edward remarks with confusion, causing me to laugh at his cluelessness.

"Goodwill? You strapped a weapon to his shoulder with enough destructive force to annihilate every Drachman invasion force that comes knocking at our front gate in a single blow, one wrong move and he destroys Fort Briggs, that's a lot of pressure for a man who's most powerful weapon he manned was the canon of a new experimental war machine we're making, not everyone is as crazy and fearless as you Edward" I chuckle, causing the kid to lower his head and sigh.

"Mira, that isn't why I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid of that weapon, cause its power pales in comparison to my own" he says quietly, prompting my curiosity to reach new levels.

"What do you mean by that, I know your eye beam trick is impressive, but its surely not on the same scale as 10 to the 14th power joules-"

"Mira…that was a parlor trick, I was holding back, severely, more than severely in fact" he interrupts, my silence and restraint from berating him for cutting off a superior in mid-speech lasting only due to the shock of realizing how serious he was.

"Edward, what exactly are you?" Kami asks worriedly.

"You'll probably figure some stuff out while you take a medical examination of me; I'd like you to do a full physical of me in my natural body that I'm now in, the first form Armstrong and her soldiers saw me in was my former appearance back before a recent trip I took several weeks ago" he replies formally as he stands up and walks over to the private examination room.

"Why do you want a physical, you seem to be in perfect health, is something wrong?' Kami asks with concern.

"No, nothing is wrong; see its like this, I want a secret file about me, for future references once the country of Amestris is fully secure from within, some crazy shit is going on behind the walls of Central Command, and underneath it too, so just give me the full physical so I can see what can be revealed with current Amestrian medical tech, alright?" Edward explains, raising my curiosity even further and causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Very well then, if you'll all wait outside, I've got one more procedure to do" Katherine states as she closes the door and locks it.

"Alright, now that your invincible body guard is occupied, I want some more answers, like what the hell is going on!" I shout, causing the group gathered to gulp nervously, except for the strange old man with a black suit.

"Um…well…you see, we uh-" Alphonse stammers worriedly, as though trying to figure the best way to break some big news without causing a panic.

"Oh for Pete sake, Major General Armstrong, is this room secure, no one nearby can potentially overhear the information we're about to speak of can they?" the well dressed old man asks firmly, his voice strangely uncharacteristic of a person his age, filled with the smooth tones of youth and vigor.

"There are two places we can do that: my private office at the top of the fort, or the panic room in the basement where R&D is stationed" I reply, causing them to sigh with relief.

"Good, we can't risk any of this ever reaching Central, not even one potential traitor can be allowed to know even a fraction of this secret knowledge" Alphonse states firmly.

"How dare you make such an accusation! There are no traitors in my ranks, all the soldiers and staff of Fort Briggs are loyal to me first, and the Führer second! I execute traitors personally the moment they're discovered, and no Drachman spy has ever infiltrated our country through this area and gone unnoticed by Northern or Briggs forces" I snap, causing Al to step back with fear.

"Sorry, its just an extra precaution, you never know Mira, uh-sir!" Alphonse shouts nervously, causing me to smile and chuckle. The group looked at me with strange faces, clearly confused by my change in demeanor.

"You're right, you can never be too careful kid, that's the best rule of combat, always be prepared and adaptable. We'll go to the panic room as soon as Edward is finished with his evaluation" I announce as I cross my leg on my lap and get comfortable.

"(Sigh) Thanks Randall, I wasn't gonna be able to sleep with that thing on my shoulder, I can't wear something that dangerous till I know how to control it" Buccaneer comments as he walks in with our very own cigarette toting mechanic of automail, Randall Abrams. At this point, Randall had swapped out Buccaneer's former crocodile arm turned canon, with his custom designed Mad Bear G.

"No problem man, now I want to talk to the guy who made that new combat automail, its amazing, where is this Edward?" Randall asks as he looks around the room, holding the cannon like automail limb Edward had created from Buccaneer's crocodile.

"Currently getting a physical, I will be getting details from him and his friends personally once he is done, we'll be having a secret meeting in the panic room down in the basement" I state as I put my sword on my lap.

"Excellent, I want to learn all about this device, its composition alone is beyond anything I've ever seen, it almost seems like it came from a…a…-"

"Another planet, another time, another world?" Edward adds to the engineer's statement with a smirk as he stands in the doorway of the examination room, without a shirt on! Everyone was staring at him with a mixture of awe and another emotion but the two old men, and the tall fellow with his fur collar jacket.

The girls, including Katherine and myself gawked at his toned figure, while most of the men had stares of either covert, or outright obvious envy at his body, and who could blame them? He was quite honestly, more magnificent than I'd imagined; not only was he supremely cut with muscles, but they were in the perfect proportions for an ideal male figure of health! I swear, they must be hard enough to cut glass, hell, steel even, he just was absolutely, perfect and…stop it! Mira, you can't just melt down like that cause he's gorgeous, he must prove himself before you can lower your guard around him, and I would ensure such a competition would occur at the soonest possible convenience.

"Hey, I'm up here folks" Edward remarks with a frown, having realized how badly they were staring at him.

"Oh, apologies, I'm Randall Abrams by the way, the automail mechanic here at Fort Briggs, please Edward, tell me more about this thing you made out of Buccaneer's M1913A Crocodile, he said its called the…the New-vo Burst canyon?" he replies with nervousness and excitement, causing Edward's head to sprout a big anger nerve.

"(Growl) YOU MORON, ITS CALLED A NOVA BURST CANNON, I TOLD THE CAPTAIN THAT SEVERAL TIMES! (Sighs) Also for your information, its "Major" Elric, and you will address me as such for as long as I see fit, that's your punishment for being so thick, this applies to everyone but my crew and Major General Olivia Mira Armstrong, am I clear?" Edward asks with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh, Uh, Yes sir, my apologies for being so thoughtless and rude!" Randall says as he quickly bows then salutes the eldest Elric brother, Buccaneer soon joined in, though quite plainly visible, he did so with great reluctance.

"Good, now come on, we need to get to the basement, this is news that really shouldn't have to wait, lead the way Mira" Edward says confidently as he offers a hand to help me up. Gladly taking it, he helped me to my feet, as though I were weightless. I was amazed at his power, his chivalry, and how he managed to blend serenity and rage into such a beautiful and wondrous combination, that just beckoned me to command he come with me to my private office, where I would just…

I quickly gave myself a mental slap to end that train of thought; I'm a general for Pete sake, and a tough one at that. I can't let myself be reduced to a bubbling, giggly schoolgirl just because Edward Elric sees to have all the qualities of a man I could want, I must test him rigorously before I making such a choice.

Upon reaching the elevator, the old man in the black suit declined riding down it out of worry for his safety. Though I tried to assure him that it was perfectly fine, Edward vouched for him, and asked if there were stairs he could take instead, and I directed him to the stairwell at the end of the hall. Several minutes later, we exited the elevator and met up with Major Miles, who had accompanied the suit toting elder down to the basemen.

"Gentlemen, welcome to R&D, aka, Research and Development, this is also were we house the fort's vital support systems, now come along, the panic room is just ahead" I state as I lead them toward the center of the room and motion for them to stop.

"So where is it? All I see is a manhole entrance to a pipe system" the foreigner known as Ling comments impatiently.

"This is the entrance, its disguised you moron" I snap sarcastically. Quickly piling into the entrance, we climbed down 20 feet and into a short tunnel that led to a maze of branching pathways. After showing them the secret door leading to the real panic shelter hidden by meticulous alchemy just before the entrance to the labyrinth meant to throw off any potential invaders who manage to find the entrance to this area, we piled in and got comfortable, and I sat down and crossed my arms.

"Ok, we are fully isolated here, there are no prying eyes, ears, or anything else to see us, we're completely and utterly alone, so start talking Fullmetal" I say harshly, hoping he understood how serious I was.

"Alright, but first you have to swear that no word of this will ever leave the fort, and none of the soldiers besides you five can learn of what I'm about to say for now, alright?" Edward asks respectfully, yet his tone also demanding at the same time.

"That all depends, but for now, I'll lean toward upholding that bargain, now what is going on, what exactly are you? Don't you dare hold anything back" I demand, worried about the answer I might hear. With a sigh, Edward stood up and looked at my soldiers, then at me, his gaze steady and unwavering.

"Do you all remember my retaliation earlier outside the fort when your men were trying to kill me and hurt my friends, with the energy beams from my eyes?" he asks with a serious tone, strafing his eyes from myself, to Buccaneer, Miles, then back to me again.

"How could we forget? The prelude alone was mind numbing; you melted every bit of ice and snow in the area apart from that in the air for miles, it looked like mid-summer out there, then you carved a path straight through the Briggs Mountain Range like a damn knife, what the hell was that!" Buccaneer shouts, Edward's gaze remaining steady.

"Ling, Fu, May, can you help get the ball rolling? The leaders of Briggs here have to understand what Ki is" Edward says as he points to the prince and the young lady, who promptly leapt up and landed before me, giving a brief bow of respect.

"Alright, do any of you know what allows animals, plants, people, all living things, to keep living?" the young girl asks as she looks around.

"I can answer that; all biological life, including humans, are sustained by a complex interconnected chain of numerous chemical reactions, electrical impulses, and healthy cellular materials, that's what keeps life well…alive" Katherine remarks in a textbook fashion.

Suddenly, a harsh buzzing noise accompanied by a crowd going "awww" filled the room, causing everyone to look at Edward, who was holding a small electronic device with a button.

"WRONG! Ha ha haaaa" Edward laughs, stopping once he realized we were starring at him.

"Sorry, I gained a strange sense of humor from one of my teachers a while back, I normally don't lapse and do crap like that or use these gadgets for gags at any time, I guess I just subconsciously felt this moment was the perfect one to use that thing, please continue May" he chuckles sheepishly, pocketing the object in his coat.

"Ok, well Ms. Katherine, he's right, you are wrong; those are essential components to make a body, but those things don't make something alive" May says respectfully, causing Kami to get flustered and stand up.

"That's absurd, of course that's what makes stuff alive! I've got more than 8 years of medical training based on hundreds of years of research, how the hell can we be wrong, what else could possibly be responsible for the sustention of life?" she argues vehemently.

"Chi of course, also known as Ki" the girl says with a smile, causing Kami's face to bend into a look of confusion.

"What the hell is that?" Buccaneer comments gruffly.

"Ki, also known as Chi, is a Xingese word, it literally translates into life force, as in the very energy of life itself" Fu adds authoritatively.

"That's preposterous! I've read about that, all the research and studies we've conducted into that concept indicates it's a complete myth, there is no unique form of biological energy inherent to living creatures, they only process existing kinds of natural energy" she continues, her anger returning as she shouts.

"That's where you're wrong, there is such a thing, all of us from Xing can sense life force" Ling remarks as he holds a finger up.

"Alright then, what does this "life force" look like?" Kami asks skeptically as she stares at them in disbelief.

"Well originally, we thought it was something only your mind can perceive, a sort of mental ability, it is a sixth sense after all, unlocked with proper training" the masked girl comments.

"Which we discovered was not the case upon meeting Edward, the ultimate authority on the matter as it now turns out" the old man Fu replies.

"Check this out" Edward says proudly as he holds out his right hand, opening his palm slowly. In an instant, a spark of light formed, steadily growing, until it was the size of a tank shell.

"Is that what the energy from your eyes was made of, Ki?" I ask tentatively, mesmerized by the glowing warmth of the orb, somehow feeling a sensation coming from it, like I knew it from somewhere.

"Indeed, it is both a thing of beauty…and of terror" Edward says cryptically, causing everyone to look at him strangely.

"Why, Its so beautiful, what could be terrifying about it?" Kami remarks, clueless as to its true power.

"This is the power that has razed lands, boiled away seas, and cut down mountains, even destroyed entire worlds, what I hold is pure energy, enough to destroy the moon above us in a matter of moments, adding just a little more, I could destroy the earth on which we stand in a blinding flash" Edward says solemnly, causing the face of everyone but myself and his friends to pale.

"(Nervous chuckle) You-you're kidding right? I mean, there is no way anyone could ever be that powerful, right?" Kami asks, her tone desperate for reinforcement of her theory.

"No, this is no joke, I balance in my hand the power to destroy worlds, power over life itself, thus by extension, life forms, the power to protect them-" he starts as the orb changes to a soothing green color.

"-or end it all" he finishes calmly, as the orb's color switches to an angry red, like rage itself.

"PUT IT OUT, PUT IT OUT, YOU'LL KILL US ALL!" Katherine bellows hysterically, her face streaming tears of terror and helplessness.

In an instant, everyone jumped over to her, and Randall held her hand, while Buccaneer patted her back.

"Soldier, compose yourself!" I shout, embarrassed by her total lack of control over her emotions.

"NO! NOOOOO! He's a monster, this explains why his blood seemed strange, he's not human, Edward Elric is a homunculus!" Kami shrieks as she wraps herself around Randall and buries her face in his chest.

Immediately, laughter began to echo throughout the panic room, and we found the source was no other than the old man in the suit.

"You must be kidding; to call Edward a mere homunculus, that's insulting to the man. Calling him an artificial human, its like calling a martial arts grandmaster a 90 pound weakling!" the man shouts with an uncharacteristically youthful tone.

"Edward is the leader, he protects us, he's our friend, even if he doesn't let me eat everything I want" the fat one adds with a smile.

"How would you know so much about them old man?" Buccaneer asks aloud, causing the man to throw his head back and cackle madly, red arcs of alchemical energy discharging off his body as it began to slim down.

"Because I' _AM_ a homunculus meat head!" he laughs as his form changes into that of a teenager with dreadlock like tendrils of hair, everyone but Edward's friends, including myself, too shocked to even speak at the way this man had changed into a child before our very eyes.

"I'm Envy the Jealous, this is one of my younger brothers, Gluttony the Voracious" the lithe homunculus says with a bow. Still, all we could do is stare in silence.

"Its a long story, do you have a few hours?" Edward asks hopefully. Nodding, I motioned for the tales to continue.

_3 Hours Later_

**Edward Elric**

Having explained everything from the Homunculi, Father, the big conspiracy about how the country was founded, and my out of universe trip, including a summary of my vast training, not to mention everything that had occurred since my return 5 weeks ago, I left most of General Armstrong's privileged few gathered among us with slack mouths.

"So, are we all cool? I don't want anyone freaking out" I say calmly, noting the level of whiteness in the faces of everyone but Miles and Armstrong.

"So…you know about information others don't have access to, right, got it from an outside source?" Major Miles comments unexpectedly.

"That's right, is there a reason you're asking Major?" I reply, wondering what the quarter Ishvalan's remark was for.

The prompt removal of his glasses answered my question, and I stared at him, indicating I wasn't surprised.

"As I suspected, you knew about how I'm Ishvalan, do you know by how much too?" he asks with a monotone.

"Yeah, one quarter on your grandfather's side, who was killed in the war of extermination right after you were posted here" I say calmly, causing him to look at me with scrutiny.

"So you know I'm Ishvalan, what are your feelings about me young man, what is your reaction to my race? I know its already been decided considering how far in advance you've known about what ethnicity I come from" he continues, causing me to continue to face him with a stoic expression.

"To be honest Miles, I'm conflicted; your people are generally peaceful, and try to keep to themselves, but one of them killed my best friend's parents, and nearly killed me and my brother earlier this year before I got these powers, sometimes I wonder if maybe…-"

(Buzzing Pop)

"-I should just destroy your homeland so you'll be forced to assimilate and end this damn cycle of madness due to your race's beliefs" I say coldly as I create a crimson red sphere of Ki on my right finger with the signature popping noise that often accompanies their creation, the orb crackling ominously with intense power and black discharge.

"What, Brother, you can't do that!" Al screams indignantly, apparently having taken my threat as real, I decided I'd just play along to teach them a lesson.

"WELL WHO'S GONNA STOP ME THEN?" I bellow, causing him to gasp, as well as Miles and my friends from Xing.

"Yeah, might be kinda hard to stop a guy that's invulnerable and can point his fingers at planets and make them explode in a matter of seconds wouldn't it?" I say as I grin, causing May to hug Alphonse's leg and whimper. As I looked around, I saw that everyone but Envy, Gluttony, and General Armstrong were shaking with fear.

"That's right, I'm not merely powerful, a more accurate summation would be that I'm power itself!" I laugh as I make the orb grow larger till it's the size of May, everyone crouching and whimpering but the same three from before.

"So, which of you, of any from this world, would dare to raise their hand against me and think you have any hope of living past the few seconds after your betrayal?" I say coldly as I raise the orb over my head, in a pose making it seem I would toss it.

"I'm the strongest, and I say the weak and detrimental to society or humanity should die, and despite what you think, who on this planet could force me to do anything less than I desire if its what I truly want?" I say with a sneer, as Buccaneer pulls Randall and Katherine behind him to shield his comrades.

"You're right, you are the strongest here, and no one could possibly stop you, not even the Father guy, so it is all up to you; question is, can you really live with the guilt if you walk that path?" General Armstrong asks firmly, causing me to look at her with an intense stare.

**Olivia Mira Armstrong**

After posing my question, and showing I did not fear him, I would have my answer, even though he was an extraterrestrial, I still knew he was a perfect specimen of physical prowess, now I just had to know what he was like inside.

"So you would all defy me, including you Alphonse, even though it doesn't matter how many of you attack, you wouldn't give up, you'd fight me to the bitter end no matter how hopeless it was?" Edward asks solemnly, as I looks around at everyone, their faces hardening as they prepared to brace themselves, myself included as I reached for my sword handle.

Then, Edward began to chuckle lightly.

"That's all I needed to know, thanks, it proves how loyal you all are to justice" he says with a sigh as the orb on his finger shrinks and vanishes with a hollow fizzle.

This was all I needed, I couldn't deny things anymore, Edward was indeed a prime candidate for being the only man in the world worthy of me, not only was he forceful and strong, but he also had loyalty and a good sense of wrong and right, he was virtually perfect! I'd have to get him alone sometime in the near future and talk to him privately.

"Alright, I think I've put you all through enough, lets go have some food, I'm starving!" Edward shouts, his stomach rumbling loudly as he spoke.

"Then allow me to get the cooks on the job, a man…excuse me, a Saiyan like you, needs a good meal to keep his energy up, how much do you need?" I chuckle, admiring his humor.

"I'd estimate 50 to 60-"

"Got it, 50 to 60 calories worth, I'll notify the chefs and they'll begin preparing your meal right away" I say as I motion for everyone to head to the door so we can go back to the base above.

"I wasn't done Mira, 50 to 60,000 calories, maybe more, I have a tremendous energy level to sustain, this body is Ki powered, its gonna require tons of food" Edward continues, causing me to drop my sword in shock.

"Well, then you'll have to buy your meals, even my soldiers only get 3 free meals a day from the cafeteria" I say coldly, causing him to stomp his foot.

"Hey, I'll help cook my meals, I'll even synthesize all the different kinds of matter needed to make the foods for my meals, but I'm not paying money for the junk they serve here. Besides, with a metabolism like mine, I'd go broke paying for each dish" he says angrily, as I gave him an intense, "no way in hell" look.

But as I saw he wasn't backing down, I sighed, it just wasn't really conceivable to fight him, he'd win no matter what, he'd already proven that earlier.

"Well, can you at least offer us some kind of service in exchange for your meals? Its only fair, after all, you'll still have to use our kitchens to prepare your mea…oh right, no you don't, you could just use your super alchemy to make one from scratch, and use yourself to energize or fuel all the devices" I say as I catch myself then correct my statement.

"No wait, you're right, I should help out around here while we stay, we all should, but first we eat" Edward says cheerfully as he heads toward the door then walks out.

"He's an interesting fellow isn't he General?" Randall remarks as we begin to pile out and up the ladder.

"Yes…he most certainly is" I reply back with a subtle hint of respect and admiration as I catch up to Edward who'd begun to open the panel that led back to the basement. Following him swiftly, we began to climb out and head for the elevator, which Envy and Miles did not take due to the homunculus's weight.

_1 Hour Later_

**Buccaneer**

As Edward kept transforming scrap metal from around the base into food, then shoveling it down as soon as he finished heating the foods he'd just created, ranging from far eastern dishes, to just stacks of sirloin and other meats, we all watched in a mixture of disgust and amazement; his appetite was more alien than he was.

"So…do all Saiyans-"

"Eat on this scale? Yeah, pretty much; the more powerful you are, the more food you need. Some of its psychological, but yes, we really do need to eat like this to stay alive" Edward says as he interrupts me, then uses one hand to keep the homunculus known as Gluttony away, while he uses his other to continue creating, heating, and shoveling food into his gaping maw.

"Hey, I'm one of you now too, when do I get to eat? I haven't even had lunch" Ling moans pathetically.

"Relax, I'll feed you later at the mess hall during mandated chow time when I'm not so hungry, otherwise I'll just eat all the stuff I transmute" Edward chastises, causing Ling to relax.

"How come the funny man gets to eat, I'm starving!" Gluttony whines as he's forced back again after another futile attempt at grabbing a morsel.

"Unlike you, Ling isn't functionally immortal, your hunger is mostly psychological, you won't die if you go without food a few days, now stop trying to eat mine, I need this to stay strong, you don't!" Edward snaps as he slaps away the fat creature's hand for the umpteenth time, causing the man to whimper and suck his finger.

"Hey sir, what do you think of this?" I ask as I turn to face General Armstrong, realizing after a moment that she had left the room. Scratching my head, I noticed that Miles was gone, and figured they must have had a military matter to discuss that didn't concern me too much, so I returned to observing Edward eat like a starving army that had been rescued would along side my friends and his.

**Olivia Mira Armstrong**

After having Miles come with me, rather, after I'd ordered Miles to do so with a stern face, we arrived at the basement. Once down there and on a catwalk, I noticed Miles eyeing me with suspicion.

"Is there any particular reason why we are here sir?" Miles ask with confusion in his voice. I snarled, hoping he'd know when to curb his questions.

"Are you questioning my order Miles?" I say with a harsh voice.

"No sir, its just…I'm just wondering what is going on" Miles asks nervously.

"I want to ask you a question Miles. What do you think of Edward Elric?" I state seriously, causing Miles to take off his goggles and close his eyes. I could tell he was about to say something profound or personal now, he always kept his eyes off unless the discussion was important.

"What do you mean sir?" Miles ask me as he opens his eyes, their red gaze piercing and demanding an answer.

"His power…it's amazing, more than amazing even, its almost divine in scale" I say With this Miles looked visibly shocked, as he fully absorbed the weight of my comment.

"Edward could destroy our entire world with just a flick of the wrist, and that's not even but a fraction of his might, yet he chooses to ally himself with us to save it; doesn't that seem strange to you?" I remark, hoping he'd penetrate my small talk and realize the true focus of my speech I'd wanted to discuss.

"No sir, I believe that Edward is choosing his country over his own wants or desires. He has even converted more than half of the Homunculi to our side; he seems to know what he is doing" Miles says as he faces me, his eyes aligning with mine.

"Or…is it that you are afraid of his power, that you fear him?" he asks with a gentle mock. With those words I became angered, and drew my sword, placing the blade to his throat harshly.

"Do you seriously think that I would have any fear?" I scold as the blade nears to cutting his flesh. "I, the queen of this fortress, will not fear anything as long as I have a country to protect!" I state proudly, hoping he'd see past my façade, and catch on at last. Looking into my eyes, he laughed proudly, having a glint in his eyes as he smiled.

"That's my leader, she always knows what to do, and what to discuss" he says with pride in my voice. I smiled back, and sighed, my cheer disappearing as soon as it had formed.

"Ok, I'll be honest with you Miles, I…I' am scared of him, but its not because he's an alien that could kill us all, I know he'd never do that" I say timidly, apprehensive of mentioning the next part, even though I knew this was Miles, my most stoic and trusted friend, the only one in this base that not only hid secrets about himself, but one of mine too, and he'd never revealed it to anyone, so I figured this new one wouldn't be too hard for him to keep under wraps, best if I confess to someone, do it to my best Major.

"Then why, what makes you fear Edward if not the thing you should fear most? You know, the part where he'd rip you in half like a sheet of paper if he lost it" Miles deadpans.

"Because I…(gulp) I think I' am attracted to him, and maybe more than that" I say timidly, causing the major's eyes to widen as his jaw drops for a moment, however he quickly recomposed himself and cleared his throat.

"Sir…are you joking or is this serious? I need to know, you've made cracks along those lines before, and you must remember, he's not even technically a man, he's a Saiyan" Miles reiterates, as he stares at me intensely.

"Miles, that's precisely why I'm attracted to him so damn much; he's everything I'd want in a man, looks, power, confidence, cunning, intelligence, manners, thoughtfulness, the ability to be serious when the chips are down, yet a good light sense of humor when needed too; all that but he isn't a man. Don't you see? Someone who is not a man at all is the perfect man for me. There may be only one human who can compare, but he's been too chicken to ask, and he's not powerful enough to make me want to beg him to make a move. Edward however, he's probably not even thinking about women right now, so I have to give him a nudge, not to mention how I'm both much older and a commanding officer who could be charged with misuse of my authority if I did something he doesn't like" I reply, causing Miles to just stare at me in shock, apparently he didn't realize I'd put this much thought into this.

"That still doesn't explain why you fear him sir" Miles deadpans. I sighed and prepared to tell him a dark secret.

"I fear him because…I've never felt rejection before, and there is a sure possibility that he might not be interested in a mere mortal such as me, so I'm afraid he'll hurt my heart" I reply, hoping I didn't sound all pathetic to my best Major. For several minutes, there was nothing but visible silence between us, Miles clearly shocked at this revelation I'd confided in him. Finally, I heard him sigh, as he prepared to say something.

"Well, sir, if I might offer my opinion, I think that you should-"

(Rumble rumble)

Before he could say anything else, the ground began to quake violently, threatening to send us to our feet even up here on the catwalk.

"Soldiers, what's going on down there!" I shout, hoping there would be an answer.

"We're not sure sir, it might be one of those rare tectonic plate movements that happen every few million years, but the thing is, it feels like its coming from right beneath us and-WHOA!" a soldier beneath us screams, as the ground beneath him explodes, a hole appearing as the ground left around it caves in.

"Ugh, what…a pain!" a deep slow voice grumbles as a huge silhouetted figure crawls from the hole. As the smoke cleared, a giant man like beast, with huge hulking muscles became visible, with remnants of huge shackles and their chains around his wrists, the links clanking as he stood to his full height.

"What the, what the hell is that thing?" workers beneath us shout as it stands up, towering like one of the bears that live around here. Staring in disbelief, I remembered that this creature resembled one of the brother's Envy had mentioned, it must be a homunculus, one of the bad ones. A moment later, I saw the remaining smoke behind him displace for a moment, and another moment later, I thought I felt the air beside me move for a moment, as if something had run past. I quickly dismissed it, and resumed watching the creature.

**Edward Elric**

I was about to enjoy some fried rice balls stuffed with bean paste and pork inside, until the ground rattled, and my various foods splattered into Gluttony's face, who promptly sucked them all down. Upon sensing the arrival a new entity in the basement, I snarled and knew what was going on.

"(Growl) My food…he ruined my food…-" I snarl, as my aura begins to steam off me, the others gasping softly.

"Brother, just calm down, that could have been an accident, sometimes there's avalanches, and rockslides, or maybe it was one of those rare tectonic plate movements" Alphonse says in an attempt to calm me down.

"We can sense it too Al, its no use trying to dress it with a pink ribbon, one of them is here, we best just give him room" Ling says solemnly as I feel him take a step back toward the other side of the room.

"Three…two…one-" Envy counts down, as he accurately portrays my anger reaching its critical point.

"AAAAHHHHH! SLOTH, HE RUINED MY MEAL, I'M GONNA KILL THAT BASTARD!" I bellow, as I prepare to teleport, grabbing Alphonse by the arm. An instant later, we vanished, and reappeared right before the creature in question.

"Ahh! That's Sloth? He's like one of the Briggs Bears!" Al shouts, quickly regaining his composure.

"Sloth, you're dead meat unless you apologize for wrecking my meal, thanks to your little tunnel digging, Gluttony got the food I was eating!" I bellow, causing the creature to look at us for a moment, and then…he dozed off!

Feeling my forehead vein pulse, me and Al stared in disbelief.

"You're sleepiiiiiing?" we bellow, unable to believe this, I knew he was lazy, but I'd hoped the real sloth would be more impressive, this was absurd. Even worse, despite having screamed, he still slept!

"Alright, fine, sleep if you want, you'll wake up after I've sent you to your eternal rest!" I bellow as I rush him and prepare to smite him where he stood.

However, before I was within 10 feet, I felt myself struck in the chest, and was sent flying to the opposing wall with great force, not enough to cause harm, but enough that in my currently lowered power state it stung.

"BROTHER!" Al shouts with alarm.

"I'm ok Al, I'm just surprised at how fast Sloth is, I knew he'd be quick, but I never imagined this quick!" I shout back as I float back into an upright position.

"Brother, that blow didn't come from Sloth, he's still asleep" Al says worriedly, causing my eyes to widen.

"What?" I reply as I float back over and look at the hulking brute, who true to Al's word, hadn't move an inch, his nose bubble was still there as proof.

"But then…if Sloth didn't hit me, what could possibly have-"

"Comrade Sloth! Vy bolʹshoĭ tupoĭ lenivyĭ durak! (translated from Drachmenian/Russian: You big dumb lazy fool!)" a female Drachmenian accent shouts with rapid speed as a loud slap resounds off Sloth's back. With a shock, he slowly awoke and moaned in pain.

"Ow…pain is such a pain…why couldn't you let me sleep?" Sloth groans as he turns his head to look behind him.

"Huh? Who are you talking to?" I shout, as I try to refocus my senses, as I could not see anything behind him.

"That would be me not-Elric impersonator" the female voice shouts like a recording on fast forward, as another being appears.

Before I could say another word, I saw this newcomer…and my jaw dropped in absolute shock.


	28. A New Player In The Game

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 28: A New Player In The Game**

**Alphonse Elric**

As we stared at the form that had appeared from thin air, Edward appeared to be in more shock than me. It was a giant woman, only slightly smaller than the one with a red eye known as Sloth. However, she looked nothing like him. Whereas Sloth was wide, unkempt with long dirty hair, sluggish, and had carnivorous serrated teeth, the woman's form came with glittering blue eyes, a more lanky and svelte body, smooth skin, short and wild but clean brown hair, a blue halter top, looser martial arts style green pants, and white boots, as well as golden bracelets versus metal shackles. To be honest, she was rather pretty aside from the muscle twinges on her face, much in contrast to Sloth. In addition, she appeared to be of Drachmenian descent, evident in her musculature, akin to Armstrong but more feminine.

"Who the hell are you?" Edward asks in astonishment, apparently having never met or seen her before even with his secret knowledge.

"I go by several names among my sisters; the seductive speeder, the female flashpoint, the queen of quick, but to my enemies and my mother, I' am known as Brash, and I have no time for games, we are here to study you Not-Edward, the monster who impersonates the eldest son of Hoenheim" she says with rapid speed, as though she was in a rush; she certainly lived up to her name, even her speech was hurried.

"Well, Brash, I have two things to say; one, I wanna know what you are and how the hell you're able to turn invisible even to my keen eyes, yet also be immune to my Ki sense, and two…you can call me by my Saiyan name, Rekinju! (A/N: Japanese portmanteau of Rekinjutsu-shi, translates literally to Alchemist)" Edward screams as he powers up more, his aura faint red like the sunset.

"So that is your name, Rekinju, I will remember, and so will my Mother, then come, we fight now!" the girl shouts as she curls her hand to goad my brother on.

"Fight? HA! This won't be a fight, it's gonna be a smack down, the only reason you got that hit in earlier was cause you took me by surprise, lets see how you do when I actually try" Edward laughs as he falls into a battle stance with his right arm pointed to the ground and at his opponent, the other held over and behind his head with his right leg forward and his other behind.

"Why you little…YA pokazhu vam, vysokomernym sushchestvom iz-za! (Translated from Drachmenian/Russian, I will show you arrogant creature from beyond)" Brash shrieks as she clenches her fists and stomps her feet.

"Then come and get me you bitch!" Edward laughs as he curls his fingers to antagonize her. In an instant, she vanished, the speeds at which seemed to surprise even Edward.

"What the…where'd she go?" my brother remarks irritatedly as he pans his head around to search for her.

"Brother, why not sense for her life force like everyone else?" I suggest, hoping it would work.

"You think I haven't tried? That was the first thing I did when I couldn't see her with my eyes, but somehow…she's able to completely mask her Ki signature, I've got zilch, I'm fighting near blind here!" Ed screams nervously. I gasped upon realizing how serious this was; if Edward could not sense her whereabouts, she could employ stealth against Edward, something that was supposed to have become impossible since Edward gained his new powers.

"Well even if I can't sense you from a distance, I'll know when you come close, I have very good motion detection abilities cause I can feel the subtle vibrations that go through my Ki film when something passes near it!" Ed shouts as he calms down and just stands in place.

Suddenly, I felt something pass me, and a moment later, Edward swung his left elbow, catching the Brash creature in the face and sending her flying at a 70 degree arc, straight up into the catwalks surrounding the basement.

"HA! Told ya, just being fast enough to evade my eyes won't save you, I can feel you move around, so you'll either have to go a lot faster, or up your game, cause your bag of tricks isn't cutting the mold as it is!" Edward snorts derisively, causing the female thing to snarl and climb to her feet, then leap back down to the ground and slug Sloth in the face.

"Ow…what is it? I want to rest before I have to dig again" he rumbles slowly.

"You go and find the Xingese foreigners, the ones grouped with the strange boy with closed eyes, no doubt this monster has already met and assimilated them into his group, they are a liability should the shielding our mother, sisters and I use ever fail, now go take care of them, and try not to wreck the place, you're so clumsy sometimes!" she shouts rapidly before vanishing in a burst of speed again.

"Ugh…what a pain, oh well, find the funny eyes man, kill him, then back to digging" the hulking Sloth groans as he heads for the elevator. Realizing he meant May and the others, I gasped and panicked.

"Brother, she's sending Sloth after May and the others from Xing!" I scream, causing Edward to snarl.

"WHAT, TAKE CARE OF THEM! Oh that's it, I'm through playing games!" he bellows as his crimson aura flares even brighter, and the ground buckles a little, then with a burst of wind that pulsed through the area, he stared at the shocked Brash.

"I'm…gonna…FUCKING SMASH YOU!" Edward bellows as he leaps at Brash, and carries her into the opposing wall, then through it, bursting out into Drachman territory. I would have mentioned this to my brother, but I had to save Ling, he hadn't unlocked his powers, he was still almost as defenseless as the others were!

"Armstrong, Sloth is after Ling and the others, make sure that he doesn't get to him, I'll try to hold the big brute off!" I shout, which snaps General Armstrong out of her daze.

"Right, Miles, sound the alarm and make sure that word reaches Prince Ling and his friends to prepare themselves just incase Al should fail! Al, I hope you know what you're doing" she shouts as she rushes off to warn my friends.

"Alright Sloth, its just you and me, bring it on" I shout as I fall into my battle stance and curl my fingers to indicate I'm ready to go, with a blinding rush of speed, Sloth burst toward me and vanished from view similar to what Brash had done.

**Ling**

As an alarm blared and we began to pile out into the hallway as we followed Buccaneer, I wondered what was going on that required us to get to a safe place.

I got my answer just barely after that thought was finished, as the base began to rumble whilst Edward bellowed, "I'M GONNA FUCKING SMASH YOU!"

"What the hell?" Buccaneer comments with confusion, Randall and Katherine also staring in the direction of the sound, followed by the rest of us. As another loud crash echoed through the base, we winced as we hear a wall collapse.

"Whoa…he sure seems mad, surely Sloth isn't that much of a threat is he?" I remark out loud to myself, wondering what could make Edward go overboard like this.

"Compared to what Edward is now, no, we're all just grease stains beneath his boots in comparison, something else must have happened" Envy comments with a serious tone as he focuses too.

Without warning, there was a gust of wind, and something barreled past us, followed by another something. Upon slowing down enough, the figures revealed themselves to be Alphonse, and a giant hulking homunculus with a red right eye, the former having been thrown into the wall down the hall with tremendous force. This obviously had to be Sloth the Indolent, he matched Edward's description perfectly.

"Must…kill…man with closed eyes" a slow and lethargic voice grunts as he turns his head down and looks me square in the eyes, causing my sweat glands to kick into hyper drive as my face became drenched in a cold perspiration of fear.

"Found…you…now…die, so I can finish digging" he drones lazily, reaching a giant hand out for me.

"AAAAHHHHH HA HA! Keep away from me, I'm too important to dieeeee!" I shriek as I narrowly dodge his suddenly fast blow, the ground where I'd been standing moments earlier now a small crater where his palm had impacted.

"YOUNG LORD!" Fu and Lan Fan shout as they leap onto the creature's back and place adhesive bombs on the creature's back. I got the idea, and we quickly ran away from the center of the hallway.

"Everyone take cover!" I shout as we kiss the floor and cover our heads. Moments later, 6 high power explosives rocked the passage, and a big pressure wave swept over us following the blast. After several seconds, we got up to see if the bomb had done any damage, and I was pleased to see that Sloth was missing his right arm, half the right side of his body, and all but the bones of his right leg.

"Ow…" he groans as he barely keeps himself from collapsing.

"YES! You got it" Katherine shouts enthusiastically, pumping her fist in victory.

However, her thrill quickly turned to terror as many of us witnessed the spectacle of homunculi regenerative powers for the first time, the process both gross, yet utterly fascinating. For Katherine and May however, it was enough to make them scream. As Sloth's flesh poured over his bones in a show of alchemic sparks, May and Katherine both nearly passed out, slumping onto the floor from the sight that was unfolding.

"Owww…what a pain" Sloth deadpans sluggishly. "Must…kill…man with closed eyes" Sloth repeats with his dragged out speech as he looks back in my direction and begins to advance. As the creature slowly backed me into a corner, I noticed Lan Fan was upon the creature's back.

"Lan Fan, get away from him!" I scream as he raised his huge hands and grabbed her in one of them.

"Aaaahhhh, Help me!" she screams as he held her in front of his huge ugly face. Faster than the eye could blink, I noticed Fu upon his gigantic hand, slicing it off in one fell swoop. As the hand hit the floor, it began to disintegrate as a new one grew in, and Lan Fan leapt away before I could utter any words to her. Snapping back to the situation at hand, I realized Sloth was still dragging closer and closer toward my position, and May and Katherine where in his path, both still too dazed to focus. I had to save them! As I ran to grab the girls, Sloth blipped for a moment, then vanished. I grabbed the two ladies, leaping up and running for the closest door the moment I felt they were secure in my arms, when Sloth just reappeared in front of me, holding his hand high above his head to strike me down as he inched closer and closer.

**Envy**

As the foolish human prince just stood there, about to get pummeled to dust, I knew I had to do something so I morphed my right arm to that of my true form and slugged Sloth in the face, sending him flying through a wall with a mighty crash. Yet even after realizing he was safe, the moron still stood there in gaping like an idiot.

"Ugggghhhh…what a pain" Sloth groans as he picks himself up out of the rubble, his jaw healing rapidly till the damage was gone.

"RUN YOU DAMN FOOL!" I yell to the puny prince holding the two women. He looks up at me and his jaw dropped as he blazed out of the door no longer frozen with fear of Sloth, but with the fear of the limb from my true form. "Uhhh… killing people is a pain, gotta do it quickly so I can finish digging and sleep" Sloth says as he gets ready to go after Ling and the others. But I wasn't about to just let Sloth ruin the new life I was enjoying, I finally had friends, and most of my other siblings now cared about me, I'd sooner sacrifice myself to save them than go back to being a pawn for my wicked Father. Leaping in front of his path, I blocked him from his prey with two outstretched arms.

"Get out of the way…no time to play with you Envy, got to kill the man with the closed eyes so I can get closer to sleep" Sloth moans as he gets closer.

"NO! I want to talk to you; why are you doing this? We can make you human, we could help free you from Father, and more importantly, from your pain" I plead, hoping my brother would be able to understand and listen.

"Huh…Ugh…to many words, annoying" he growls slowly, my plea having fallen on deaf ears apparently.

"Very well then, I'll just have to smash you, and I hate having to do this to you little bro" I sigh as I prepare to hit him hard so I could protect my new family.

However, surprisingly, Sloth began to chuckle!

"Cute…but, can you hit…what you can't see or sense smartass?" the hulking simpleton cracks uncharacteristically, causing me to drop my guard a moment as I try to process this intentionally antagonistic remark.

The next moment, I felt him plow his fists into me like a freight train; damn those laws for conservation of momentum! He continued this onslaught for the next few minutes, and I began to feel confused; something was seriously wrong, usually, when he moved at these speeds, he had tremendous control issues, how was he able to do hairpin turns like Edward, who moved as gracefully as a river no matter what speed, how could Sloth, who didn't have the ability to eject propulsive Ki emissions from any point on his body to change his trajectory in an instants notice, move like this?

"You're…moving quite unusually, how can you be this agile along with your speed, last time I checked, you were as graceful as a train wreck" I remark, his increase in agility very odd.

"A secret…you won't live to find out" Sloth laughs as he prepares to charge me again. But before he could strike me, Ling leapt in with his blade, having slicked off Sloth's head and hands in three blindingly successive strikes, landing gracefully.

"Hey there, thought you could use my help, especially since I'm stronger now" Ling remarks with a smirk.

"Wait, you mean, you are, you mean you…but…how?" I sputter, as I realized what he meant, even though what he suggested sounded outlandish.

"Well we are familiar with the concept of Ki, so I just did a bit of creative thinking to apply what I'd learned from Edward's tales to myself, and sorta figured a tiny bit out" Ling chuckles, turning to look at my regenerating brother.

"Which means that I'm roughly on par with Sloth's level of power now, though I cannot channel it into the much needed Ki blasts, I'm still long ways from that" Ling says seriously as his gaze hardens.

"Well what about Fu and the girl?" I remark, wondering why they were no longer here.

"I gave them a direct order to get the others to safety, but I wouldn't blame them if they came back after accomplishing their task, so lets focus on Mr. Muscles here" he laughs as he holds his sword up again, and I form both my arms into swords too.

"Yeah, we'll hack some sense into you Sloth!" I scream, upon which Ling joined me and we threw ourselves at the lazy homunculus.

**Edward Elric**

As Brash and I picked ourselves out of the snow, I panted and laughed, wondering why I hadn't bothered to do this sooner, now I could fight with less restraint and end this quicker. As the woman shook off the impact, she snarled and looked at me.

"Very clever, very clever indeed, dragging me into the cold to try and get an advantage, but I can move fast enough that I can't freeze" she argues smugly.

"Wasn't trying to make you cold, I was trying to keep my friends out of harms way, now that we're in Drachman soil, I can cut loose" I reply with a wicked grin as I crack my knuckles, causing Brash's eyes to widen a little.

"You're bluffing, you couldn't possibly be-"

"Oh I'm serious alright! I'm as serious as you're about to be dead" I continue, cutting off the astonished Brash with a gaping mouth.

"The battle will recommence in 5…4-3-2-1, RAGH!" I roar as I fly at her with the force of 20 trains, my outstretched fists sending her flying into the air, where I promptly met her and kicked her back toward the mountains, her body impacting onto the stone walls of nature with a crash as she embeds into the stone.

"How do you like that bitch!" I shout, raising my voice to make sure its heard over the roar of the blizzard. With a roar, I felt myself struck back in the face, sending me sprawling to the snow, which was surprising, as I had unleashed more of my power, and shouldn't go down so easily.

"(Chuckles) You've got a big, fat mouth runt, I'm starting to think you're all talk; you claim to have powered up but I see nothing special still mortal" Brash remarks with a trashy tone. I laughed upon realizing she was feeling full of herself after getting in so many shots.

"What, why are you laughing? STOP MOCKING ME DAMN IT!" she shouts angrily as I continue to laugh.

"HA HA! (Sigh) You just don't get it do you? I've been holding back virtually all my power girl" I remark as I begin to power up more, my aura becoming a dark crimson.

"Wait, what?" she deadpans, apparently in disbelief as my current energy level quadruples in moments, causing my muscles to bulge slightly. As she observed the subtle but visible changes, her eyes widened.

"Let me give you a run down on how power levels work, currently my power level is roughly around 18,000 Ki units, for comparison, average humans have about five to eight Ki units of life force energy, and from what I've sensed from Envy and Pride, most Homunculi don't have above a few thousand Ki units even with immense numbers of souls in their stones" I explain, causing her to begin whimpering.

"In other words, you're screwed, completely and utterly screwed, and if I somehow can't hit you with my fists-"

(Buzzing pop)

"-I'll scatter the land with enough firepower to level a whole city once I've used my alchemy to move this whole area farther from Fort Briggs" I say with a smirk as I hold a glowing mini supernova in my palm.

"You're bluffing, you couldn't be that powerful, let alone be able to use alchemy to move an entire section of land, that would require untold levels of skill!" she shouts as I smirk more.

"Well, I guess you'll just see it for yourself missy" I laugh as I clap my hands and form a huge barrier of vibranium around the area for miles. Instants upon realized I'd summoned walls, she tried to break one down, only to rebound with a completely soundproofed thud.

"Nice try, that's an element called Vibranium, it absorbs all kinetic energy directed at it, and thus hitting it only makes it more durable sucker" I cackle as I hold my ribs while she continues to try and break it down. After several minutes, I clapped my hands and touched the ground, moving us and the several cubic miles of battleground I'd surrounded with the wall to another location many miles west of the fort. Upon depositing the entire slab we stood on, she snarled and stared at me.

"You, moron, why are you acting so smug?" she asks with a smartass tone.

"Ha, cause you're outclassed, that's why; you're just wasting your time fighting me, and I'm wasting my time humoring your attempts to better me, so either start being serious and use all power at your disposal, or I'm just gonna atomize you, but its likely to happen regardless seeing how weak you are" I reply with a bored tone.

Surprisingly, she began to laugh, and maniacally so at an ever increasing tempo, causing her voice to sound like a sped up recording.

"You're right, I have been holding back, but its only because I was trying to follow Mother's orders and bring you back alive creature, she wants to study you, says you are special" Brash remarks with a sadistic smile. My eyebrows raised upon hearing her mention this "mother" person, something was suspicious regarding her. I'd have to find out what kind of alien Brash is after this.

"Oh, and by the way, I heard your comment earlier about not being able to sense me, and I understand what it means now; it's the same pesky ability that those Xingese bastards have. Luckily mother figured out how to counter it long ago, and so you have no idea how much I've been holding back" she snarls with a smile before vanishing.

"Wait, what?" was all I could utter with a contorted face upon realizing she was gone, then feeling the sensation of being smacked upside my skull and being sent hurtling straight to the Vibranium walls where I hit with a silent thud, all in the span of half a second.

"(Groan) That really smarted, but where-"

"Right behind you" her cold smug voice whispers as she interrupts from behind me. Upon turning around, I found she was gone and felt her boot planted in my back with a sharp blow.

"Alright, try that again you big fat bi-"

CRACK!

"YEEEEOWWWWW!" I howl as I stagger for a moment, holding my neck in surprise.

"Ha, if you're so invincible, why did I just hear your bones break Mr. Invincible?" she remarks simperingly, standing over me gloating like a damn fool as I look at her from an upside-down angle.

"(Cracking noise) OWWWWWWW! No you clueless fuckwad, you didn't break shit, you popped my neck too fast that's why I'm screaming. ACK that stings!" I retort as I move my near-indestructible neck back into place with a series of loud pops, causing her to turn a little green. I sure felt glad for reinforcing my neck and allowing for greater bone and nerve elasticity via my alchemic matter manipulation; _really_ glad my master taught me that move.

"Gross, just…gross. I've seen a lot of stuff, but that freaks me the fuck out, having your head upside down and near your chest, like a damn cane curve, that's just disgusting to watch happen to, and even worse to watch in reverse. Reminds me of what Mother did to our Edwar-OOP! Better shut up, damn I hope I didn't give away too much" she blabbers, covering her mouth upon mention an Edward.

"Wait a blasted Amestrian minute…how does a random alien know m name? I haven't even been beyond Earth's atmosphere here in this world, how could you know my name space trash!" I bellow as I fire a blast straight through her chest by accident, my beam having been off by a few inches due to my head still readjusting from its twist.

However, a great and horrible revelation dawned upon me as I saw red sparks begin to surge around the wound in her solar plexus region, the flesh beginning to sew itself back together in moments.

"(Growl) You will pay for that Saiyan! Gryaznyĭ ublyudok obezʹyany! (Translated from Drachmenian/Russian, filthy monkey bastard!)" she shouts, vanishing with her super speed moments before I felt her boot land in my own chest.

Now it all made perfect sense; Brash, never staying completely still, and she healed with alchemy energy. This girl is no extraterrestrial, she's a homunculus!

BLAM! The blow resounds as she knees me in the stomach with steel shattering force.

Brash, the Impatient.

Then, with a swift jab straight in my face, she sent me flying.


	29. Who Is Mother?

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

A/N: This Chapter was made possible from contributions from viewers like you…is what I'd say if more people read this daggum story! Such as it is, they are not to thank, though I wish I could say that, it would mean people are actually taking the time to get past the few chapters and see the genius this piece of work is, instead it is this man who has helped me finish the tail end of this segment so I could finally post it after all these months, fellow FF . net author Wowza48, kudos to your dedication to my tale

**Chapter 29: Who Is Mother?**

**May Chang**

As Alphonse ran with Buccaneer to help herd us to safety, Katherine, Randall, along with Xiao-Mei and myself all followed the two to an as of yet undisclosed location away from the battle going on way down the hallway.

"Ok, we'll be safe soon, we're headed to the barricaded archive rooms near the medical bay, its almost as well protected as the secret bunker we were in earlier" Buccaneer explains in his gruff voice while we ran full speed after him.

"Wait a minute, Ling, where is Ling?" Al asks suddenly, as I take note that the prince of the Yao clan is indeed not among us. I thought he had been behind us just as Lan Fan and Fu were. How could they have lost Ling if he was so close to us…unless…

"Fu, Lan Fan, do you know where Ling is?" I snap, causing them to turn to face me as we kept sprinting. Their eyes telling me all I needed to know.

"We have to keep running, Ling is trying to buy us time" I shout as we keep going, Alphonse suddenly stopping, causing Randall and Katherine to immediately slam into him with a pair of clangs due to being right behind his body.

"Ouch! That nearly broke my nose" Randall groans as he rubs it gently.

"What the hell did you stop for, we gotta get to the archive room!" Katherine shouts angrily.

"I have to go back, Ling can't fight Sloth all alone, he'll never survive, Sloth said he'd come here to kill him" Alphonse retorts firmly. Fu promptly responded with a groan of annoyance.

"Envy is with him, I'm sure that between the two, Sloth doesn't have a chance, that's why he ordered us undergo a non-negotiable retreat" the old man shouts to Alphonse.

"That's still not enough, Sloth is the fastest of the Homunculi, and combining that with his strength and Envy's inability to use his true form inside this confined space without risking harm to the soldiers, they need all the help they can get, he's too vulnerable, so I'm going back!" Al screams, turning about face and preparing to speed back to the site of battle. I immediately leapt after him, determined to follow him, for some reason I couldn't just stand to let him go do this on his own, even though I couldn't put a finger on exactly why I had to accompany him, I just…felt some kind of connection, and it wasn't going to let me leave his side at a time like this. Several minutes later, we reached the area of conflict, where we saw an impressive spectacle had unfolded.

Both Envy and Ling were attempting to slam around Sloth, who was somehow withstanding every blow, and I knew firsthand that Envy was incredibly massive, and he could easily smack around anyone but my darling Edward with his superpowers.

"Al, good to have you here, mind helping us!" Envy screams as he tries to pin the hulking speedster, missing his mark by miles however as his fist smashes through the wall.

"Yeah, May came too, she can help out as well" Al replies as he pats my back.

"The little girl! Are you kidding, what can she do against that thing?" Envy bellows with disbelief. I couldn't believe my ears, he thought I was useless!

"I'll show you what I can do pompous!" I shout as I toss a series of knives around the giant, then proceed to do what I do best; Alkahestry at its finest.

"Huh…what is this?" Sloth remarks as he notices my kunai knives just before I drop another smaller set at my feet and crouch to activate the giant array.

Smiling, I stared Sloth dead on and grinned as I discharged power into the circle saying, "This is remote alkahestry"

Moments later, the blue discharges began to flow around the floor beneath the monster's feet, and it quickly began to melt, sucking his feet down into the molten mire. Once he was sunk in up to his waist, I changed the flow of energy and rapidly cooled the materials to trap him.

"Lets see you do that Envy" I huff as resume a standing position and grin proudly, feeling certain I could impress my darling Edward with this feat of transmutation and cunning.

"I could easily do it, but I don't want to waste precious ener…I mean, souls, to do it, I'll just learn how to do alchemy the way humans do one day" he replies bitterly, his tone softening a little during his change of word choice.

"Very impressive Ms. Chang, I'm starting to wish I'd learned Alkahestry, however, once I gain more mastery over my Ki, I'll not need that for battle, and I'll be ready to win the throne and lead Xing to a golden age" Ling comments as he jumps onto Sloth's back and sits upon it.

"(Slow snarl) Get…off…me!" Sloth roars as he tries to reach his beefy arms around his back to grab hold of Ling, needless to say, it was impossible, as his muscles were far too bulky to allow such as feat, causing the prince to guffaw as we watched this…admittedly hilarious attempt by the homunculus to remove the Yao clansman from his shoulders.

"Its no use Sloth, you're trapped, and I'm going to make sure you stay trapped" Alphonse announces as he claps his palms and touches the ground, using alchemy to form large anchor rings in the flooring.

"Ling, grab his chains and put them near the anchors!" he shouts as he takes his hands a few inches off the ground in preparation to clap again.

"Right!" Ling responds as he leaps off Sloth's back and does the task Alphonse asked of him, in a matter of moments.

"You've already unlocked Ki power? Tell me how right now!" I clamor as I leap over to his side and stare him in the face.

"Like I'd tell you, we're from rival clans each trying to ascend to the throne, I'm not jeopardizing my ace" Ling scoffs rudely. I felt my forehead pulse at the stupidity of his statement and so I thusly leapt onto his shoulders and began to pound my fists on his skull like a drum.

"You big ass, tell me, tell me, TELL ME!" I screech as I let loss my rage on his head.

"AAH! GET OFF YOU TINY BITCH!" he screams as he tries to reach for me, swinging my body side to side to avoid his grabs.

**Envy**

As I saw the two members of royalty bitching over the succession of their country's damn throne, I groaned and covered my hand with my face, wishing they could just get along.

"Ow…what a pain!" Sloth drones as he attempts to move.

"Give it up Sloth, you're not strong enough, and you don't have any room to build momentum to aid your escape even if your do free your arms, we've trapped you brother, you may as well cooperate" I say stiffly as I look him in the eyes.

For some reason, this caused him to begin chuckling slowly as he grinned; that wasn't a good sign.

"You're…right, normally…this would…trap me, but…(chuckle) I got something…special from Mother, and…it gives me…an enhancement when used" he says arrogantly as he begins to struggle.

That cinched it, now I knew that something was way out of place. But what, he spoke as if he had something that amplifies his powe…oh shit.

"Guys, get back, he's up to something!" I scream, as I notice Sloth's body rumbling and vibrating like it was a tectonic tremor.

"Huh, what did you say Envy?" Ling asks as he and May pause their struggle and look at me.

"You fools, don't you hear the vibrations!" I snap as I point to Sloth behind them, who had already snapped the chains that Al had transmuted as his shaking intensified.

"What's he doing?" May asks with surprise.

"(Gasp) Guys, he's vibrating his body at an exponentially increasing rate, and soon, its going to reach the point that its energy transfers into extreme-"

With a sudden burst of hissing steam, Al's remark was cut short as the floor around Sloth's waist begin to melt again. Within moments, the indolent began to lift his legs from the burning slag and was free!

"-heat…and transform the floor he was trapped in back into a liquid state allowing him to…get out" Al gulps as he notices that Sloth was now truly angry.

"Ugh! You pests…are…getting…on…my last…nerves!" he bellows as he shakes off patches of the molten metal that had stuck to his lower body, a few splashes barely missing Al and May, the molten steel melting partially into the other areas they'd landed on with a hissing squish.

"Such…a…fucking…(pant) pain! I will squash you all" he says slowly with rage as he pulls his arms to his side and looks at me with his eyes, his other white one now strangely gaining a faint red glow. Without a moment to blink, he vanished, and then before I could barely think, I felt his fist slam into my face, sending me barreling toward the opposing wall and through it.

**Edward Elric**

As I was struck again in my gut with a right hook, I flew through another rock cropping with a mighty crash. Immediately after getting up, I was struck again and sent through another one, this time the larger rock taking my momentum at first, then crumbling shortly after impact.

"(Groan) What the hell, she's only a homunculus, they aren't supposed to be this powerful" I gripe as I rub the back of my head, if it hadn't been for my Ki film, I'd have likely gotten a superficial wound, and for me to get injured wasn't a good sign, thankfully as it was, it only felt like the times back when I got whacked in the head by Winry's wrench as a human. Moments later, the she-thing was upon me, and held me by my throat as she picked me off the ground again.

"So Not-Edward, mind telling me why you are here at Fort Briggs? Your desire to go here so suddenly has Father and Mother most intrigued" she asks firmly with her thick accent, her eyes glinting as she smirked confidently while he kept her grip.

"(Chuckle) You'd…(groan) be surprised by how intuitive I' am, I had a feeling Sloth's next target while digging the tunnel for the circle, would be at Fort Briggs" I laugh as I fight off the pain.

"What…you knew we were coming!" she bellows as she chokes me harder.

"Ack! No…just Sloth, you were a complete and total surprise, I didn't even know you exist, I wish you'd tell me what's going on" I groan as the pain intensifies, her grip squeezing the Ki film around my neck like a noose.

"As it should be; well, we actually never anticipated surviving the trip, it was extremely…wait, I know what you're trying to do. You want me to spill Mother's secret plan, get me to blow our cover, well I refuse to fall for it Not-Edward!" she screams angrily as she chucks me toward another rock, sending my body crashing through it headfirst.

"You'll also not live to tell the others what I accidentally let slip before, so prepare to die alchemist impersonator" she chuckles dryly.

"OWWWW! Ever heard of being careful!" I snap as I float back to my feet, staring at her with a burning anger.

"Why bother? You'll be dead soon anyways, Not-Edward, or would you prefer I call you…Rekinju?" she teases haughtily.

"Rekinju, Not-Edward, whatever floats your boat; now explain…why will I be dead soon Brash?" I retort curiously.

"Because I'm already at 75 percent of my maximum power, and a special item I have on hand will allow me to boost my full power by a further 500 percent! You are already at full strength and cannot even touch me" she boasts with a grin.

Now I knew why she was taking her time, she was at, er…near her full natural power limit! She also thinks I' am too…

With a big evil smirk, I stood up and looked at her intensely and began to laugh loudly over the roaring winds that had picked up.

"What are you laughing at shorty?" she growls bitterly.

"HA HA! Cause bitch…HA HA, my current power level of 18,000…-" I chuckle as I float and land on my feet, drawing my hands to my sides.

"- heh…that's not even one half of a one half of one percent of my full power in this form!" I roar ecstatically as I begin to summon more of my Ki, the faint sunset red, flame size aura now changing into a blazing inferno of ambient life force energy, its color gradually darkening to the color of deeply oxygenated blood. Brash's eyes promptly began to bulge slightly as she stared in shock, while the ground beneath me began to rumble and crack, the loose pieces beginning to float up with my flow of energy as my power nullified the local gravity. Then, with a roar of animalistic proportions, I summoned yet more of my power, and a pulse of Ki energy swept across the land, knocking Brash off her feet and sucking her into the gravity-free zone that was ever-growing alongside my power level. As I kept raising it, she twisted and oriented herself over to stare at me, and I saw the fear registering on her face, the abject terror visible, plain as day as the homunculus realized the truth.

Now she really wasn't merely screwed, her continued existence was solely dependent upon my whims, drawing breath due only to the desire to keep her alive and repay the monstress's wickedness in blood.

With a last pull on my massive reserves, I raised my power level up one more step, increasing its sphere of influence, instantly destroying the stone, snow, and soil it touched, the matter broken apart into its constituent particles upon contact with my natural, yet unearthly might, the spectacle visually appearing as though the ground beneath me was eaten away while I summoned more strength from within, my blood red aura now burning around me like a wild forest blaze as a final pulse of Ki shoots from my body, ripping Brash in two as the blade-like burst shoots through her torso diagonally, screaming obscenities and cursing my name as she began to slowly fall onto the rocky ground, then abruptly crashed once the overflow of Ki from my body ceased to pour into the environment and gravity was restored. Now, I could begin to really punish her. Leaping 100 feet into the air, I charged a small Ki orb into my right fist to make an energy punch, then began arcing my arm downward, pointing at her torso as I sailed through the air straight into the place her black heart would be if she had one, causing her to scream in agony.

**Ling Yao**

After having summoned Gluttony, the fat coward's return being reluctant on his end as it was, the tide of the battle had gone back to even, as we now staved off the incredibly pissed, yet somehow even faster and more powerful, Sloth, though barely. His velocity and strength were unbelievable, and it hurt to try and block his blows, even after summoning more Ki.

"(Groan) He seems to have gotten stronger, yet I can't sense any increase in power level, or his power level at all in fact, (yelps) how is that possible Ling?" May shouts as she barely dodges a blow from Sloth that sinks into the floor, leaving a fist shaped dent in the metal.

"Despite how impossible-WHOA!-it seems, he must be masking his Ki, somehow he's got an item that can conceal his life force without it weakening or diluting his power" I reply as I barely dodge a clothesline blow.

"Well, then we need to find out how to stop it, he's getting faster, and if you two can't sense his presence we'll not have much of a choice but to retreat, if we can that is" Envy shouts as he tries to hit Sloth with another huge arm, but misses once again.

But moments later, I felt the brute grab me by my waist, and his grip was now more powerful than my recent slight power increase had made me, I couldn't break free!

"No…escape, I…have you now" he chuckles as he looks at me with a wicked grin.

"(Gulps and chuckles nervously) Eh heh, you wouldn't hit a blind guy would you?" I whimper, hoping I could stall him long enough for someone to save me.

"Not…stupid, you can…see just…fine" Sloth snarls, seeing right through my bluff.

However, the next thing I knew, Envy had enlarged his head to its full size, and shot a huge slimy tongue with faces on it around Sloth's waist. Then, as he opened his mouth, he began to pull his tongue in with Sloth attached as he viciously roared, "RAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGHHHHH!"

Upon snapping his freakish head closed, he smiled, apparently indicative that he'd trapped the giant for now.

"Phew, that buys us some time…I hope; ok, he's made of flesh and bone, the same basic composition as us, right guys?" I ask May and Alphonse, the latter of whom had stayed back and apparently been thinking hard on some backup plan while we fought.

"Yeah, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen are all the core key elements of the human body, and Homunculi's physical forms are made from them too" Alphonse states as Envy nods his giant head in confirmation.

"Well then why don't we just transmute his body into smoke and dust and we'll be done with it?" I remark, thinking it'd be worth a shot.

"Yeah, it would kill him instantly, and then we'd be safe" May replies in agreement.

"No, Edward said that as long as the stone is intact, they can fully reconstitute provided they have enough souls to do it, destroying his body alone would only give us a few minutes, maybe less" Alphonse chastises with his hollow metallic tone.

"Well what are we gonna do then?" Gluttony says as he sucks his thumb with worry.

"You…can die" Sloth's voice bellows from within Envy's cavernous mouth, the tone murderous and enraged. Before we could blink, Envy's mouth was torn asunder and Sloth had me by the neck in his left hand.

"I…will…crush you!" he bellows as the brute begins to apply pressure of an unimaginable scale, my body only holding out due to the Ki enhancing my cellular structure by magnitudes beyond its original limitations, but even that was beginning to wane in the wake of this monster's still rising inhuman might.

"(Choking) Guys…not trying to rush you or anything but…CAN YOU SAVE MY ASS SOMETIME SOON!" I wheeze as I try to pry Sloth's hand off me.

"Now…I…crush…you!" Sloth chuckles maliciously as he raises his other fist and prepares to crack it right in my face. Just before he could hit me, I felt time slow down, and memories flooded my mind of before we even arrived in this country.

_Flashback-Xing Royal Palace over a month ago_

"Young lord, why do you strive so hard to reach this foreign land? What is so important about it, why not send vassals instead of risking your life on its soil? We would gladly go in your stead your highness, we are your humble servants after all" Fu pleads.

"Because, while the other chumps from the rival clans try to use Alkahestry, which we have learned is a dead end, to continue and achieve immortality, I know the true source lies in the skills of Alchemy to the West, in Amestris, the home to the foremost experts of the field in the known world, plus I heard they have great food!" I reply with a serious tone, my voice relaxing upon the mention of food.

"Master Ling, you are the prince, and we are honor bound to follow you wherever you go; so while I question it and hope you are making the right choice, either way, we're in this together with you leading, so when do we head for Amestris my liege?" Lan Fan asks as she kneels and bows her head.

"On the next sunrise, we head for the desert route to cross over illegally to Amestris, we must be crafty, for if we are caught, we will ruin any chances of me ever ascending the throne and leading my country to a golden age" I reply solemnly as I stand up and grab my scabbard, then my sword, sheathing it with a loud slicing noise.

Several hours later, Lan Fan crept into my room from the hallway, and shook me awake, had it not been for my reflexes I'd have killed my best friend, oh the misery I'd have felt if I had.

"Master Ling, I have a matter I want to discuss, its…personal" she whispers quietly as she stands beside my bed.

"(Groan) I was about to go to sleep, what is it?" I ask groggily, having just barely skirted falling into a deep slumber thanks to her entrance.

"Lets go, my grandfather will likely wake himself up soon and I don't want him to know I left my post for even a moment" she says quietly.

"(Sigh) Ok, lets go, walk and talk" I groan as I flip out of bed and begin to head for my balcony.

"So Lan Fan, what was so important that you had to speak to me in private at this time of night?" I yawn as I rub my eyes.

Taking a deep breath, her voice replies with, "Master Ling, why are you always so nice to me and my grandfather, especially me?"

Nearly choking on a small amount of saliva that had pooled in my mouth as I sucked in my breath sharply due to her question instantly awakening me.

"You woke me up for that!" I whisper harshly as I hack up the spit, unable to believe the stupid reason for the interruption of my rest.

"I see, you're mad at me, and I apologize for picking now of all times to discuss it, but it was the only time I could guarantee that Fu wouldn't hear us, my grandfather is overbearing as you know" she replies meekly.

"Well you got me there, but still, what is the big deal about that, so I treat you nicely, its supposed to be how we all treat each other, why are you obsessing over it like this?" I reply dismissingly as I reach the balcony and rest my arms on the ledge.

"Because you're a member of the royal family" she states flatly, causing my body to tense up as my mind registers her sentence.

"Are you seriously saying that you find it weird I treat you with the respect you deserve even though I'm the prince?" I say as I whip around and look her in the face.

"Ling, I'm just a servant, I'm not anything special, why do I deserve such special care like I'm one of your brothers, sisters, or father or his other wives!" she argues heatedly.

I just looked at her as if she said something stupid. Why wouldn't she deserve respect? She is loyal enough, and she is definitely nice enough, so I couldn't see what the big deal was.

"Because, without name and rank, when you just cut right down to it, we're all human; one person is not inherently, automatically more important than another, because everyone is special and has the right to a good life, everyone also has a role they must fill, and they must survive and live to achieve their purpose" I say.

This time she stared at me like I had several heads. After regaining her composure, she replied, "Why do you believe that?"

"Because we all have a reason to live, and we all have people we feel we are worth dying for. Those who can't fight to protect themselves will have safety, those who prey on the weak will be stopped and removed, problems with poverty and famine will be resolved, there will be peace that everyone can enjoy, be it the top of the ranks, or the lowest of servants, all together, as friends. Those are just some of the things that I want to bring with the golden age, that is what I believe my purpose is, that is what I believe is one of my reasons for being here; to fight, to defend, to love" I respond with a passionate tone.

This seemed to make her content with my answer, so she nodded and bid me a good night, then left promptly.

_End Flashback_

That's right…I remember now…I have a reason…a purpose…

"I have a reason to live, a reason…TO FIGHT!" I roar as I find more strength and manage to rip myself from Sloth's grip, summoning a little more power in the process. Upon freeing myself, I retaliated with an uppercut to his jaw that sent him sliding back several meters, leaving behind a very deep impression in the shape of my fist upon his chin.

"Ow…that hurt…you will…pay for that!" he moans as he raises his fists and vanishes from super speed again.

This time though, I poured on the swiftness as well, and found I was able to match his velocity, though just barely, and a hi speed battle began to ensue as I dodged and dealt blows to the homunculus faster than most of the others could visibly follow.

"I swear Lan Fan, I will not fail my country, and least of all, you" I say to myself under my breath as I smashed Sloth in the stomach before dodging his retaliatory swing by the skin of my teeth.

**Alphonse Elric**

As Ling proceeded to vanish from sight, reappearing only when certain blows were exchanged for a moment, I felt May tapping my leg to get my attention.

"Alphonse, you think Ling can hold off Sloth long enough for us to come up with a plan?" she inquires nervously.

"I'm not sure, but if we can't think of a plan, surely we can at least survive long enough for Ed to come help us" I reply with a hopeful tone.

"I'd bank my money on Ed, remember Sloth has become more powerful, and I doubt he's done raising the stakes, so it may be all up to the pipsqueak" Envy remarks as he leans against one of the wall areas that wasn't wrecked in the earlier fighting.

Turning my head to try and follow the battle again, I saw Ling take what surely would have been a bone-shattering blow to his chest had he still been human.

"Yes, it just might be; please get back soon brother" I mutter to myself as I clench my fists in worry.

**Edward Elric**

After having trounced Brash thoroughly, I felt it was time to see what kind of fight she'd put up if I let her power up as she'd claimed she was able to do, because this was quickly getting to be a let down. After she finished regenerating, I smirked and landed back on the ground to prepare and speak.

"Come on you sagging heap of nothing, get up and fight me! I'll even let you take time to increase your power, that is if you still can!" I taunt, hoping it'd encourage the all but defeated artificial human to stand and face me one last time. Her anguished scream of rage told me all I needed to know.

"You fool, now I shall squash you Not-Edward!" she bellows in her thick accent, that deepens and becomes more demonic, just like Father Cornello's voice had done when he bulked up, as her muscles begin to bulge till they're nearly as thick as Major Armstrong's. After several more seconds, her bulking up was complete and she grinned in a crazed fashion, her eyes now glowing with the same red hue as the alchemic discharge given off when a Philosopher's Stone is used.

"This is my full power Edward, prepare to die, and I will make sure your death is prolonged and painful-"

"Half of a half of a percent!" I remark with a nagging sing-song tone, causing her to stiffen and frown.

"What? You mean you weren't bluffing!" she screams worriedly.

"No, I wasn't! That's the level where I was before my last power up I just smacked the tar out of you with, I bumped me up to using half of one percent of the full power of this form, versus half of a half a percent; I'm still not using even 1 whole percent of my power!" I begin as I cause her face show a look like a stone had been dropped in her stomach, the fear permeating her whole form. Positioning my feet to stand evenly apart from each other as I widen my stance, I clench my fists and draw them into my sides.

"Prepare to see the other half and witness a full one percent of my base form's full power!" I bellow, then begin to Kiai and raise my power dramatically to my stated level, the entire mountain range beginning to quake from my strength as it rolled off me in waves.

**Brash The Impatient**

As Rekinju's power kept growing, I felt the gravity begin vanishing once more, but this time I slammed my feet and hands deep into the ground to get a good foothold, I would not float away so easily again.

But as the screaming and rumbling kept growing in magnitude, I felt the ground I'd gripped begin to crackle and break, and soon I found that it was shattering like glass and floating into the air, as the earth itself shuddered from his might.

What had I gotten myself into? This was no man; he was a beast, a monster, a devil! With a mighty crack, the last pieces I had grasped for anchorage to the planet, and dozens more meters of soil and rock near it snapped and broke apart, sending my body into the anti-gravity well where I floated helplessly yet again, awaiting his power-up period to end, and his next move.

**Roy Mustang**

"Yes, I understand, we'll be prepared, thank you General Grumman" I reply, hanging up the phone having now received the urgent call.

"Sir, what's going on?" Fuery asks worriedly as he walks in with a device he'd been tinkering with left behind by Edward.

"Yeah, there are constant surface ripples in my coffee, and it's a very full cup, so I'm worried that it might spill onto some of my work, what the hell is going on? Earthquakes aren't supposed to affect Eastern Command, we're alchemically stabilized for miles below the surface in this city" Breda whines from across the room.

"That was General Grumman, calling from Central City, who just got word from Central Command; there is strange seismic activity going on at the Briggs Mountain Range, originating from Drachman territory" I reply calmly.

"But its affecting us, shouldn't we be concerned?" Falman remarks with concern as he walks in with Hawkeye and Havoc.

"Yeah, earthquake are serious business, I have some family up North, they are a very dangerous force of nature, its what powers most alchemy in this country after all" Jean says with a straight face.

"Its not an earthquake at all you mindless idiots" the smooth voice of Lust purrs from the doorway.

"Oh why Lust, how are you today Ms. Lascivious?" Jean replies smoothly.

"Keep dreaming lover boy, you're not my type" the female homunculus scoffs as she walks toward my desk.

"Yeah well you know what they say; dream hard enough and chase it relentlessly, it will come true babe" he retorts with his same composed tone.

"Look, I'm here on a serious note, and also I have to pretend I'm keeping an eye on Mustang here, he's too close to Hughes for me to let them interact freely, according to Father, you know the drill" she says with a wink.

"Yes, indeed; now, your serious business, mind spilling it, ma'am?" I taunt.

"This is no laughing matter Colonel; those tremors you feel are not seismic in origin whatsoever, they're from Edward" Lust states with a severe, intensely serious tone, causing my heart to skip a beat, and the rest of my men to let their jaws drop, while Riza just stiffened with fear.

"I thought Edward needed to hold back the majority of his power, doesn't he like…pose a danger to the stability of the planet if he powers up too much? I remember him saying that to us when he described his new abilities, he's far more durable than the earth is now, and his full power exceeds the world's level of durability by magnitudes as well, that's the gist of what he said all those weeks ago" Falman say as he gulps hard to swallow down a panic attack.

"Yeah, why would he need to draw out so much that he makes the entire continent rumble? It seems overkill, there is no way what he's fighting up there could be anywhere near that strong" Jean injects as he starts to light a new cigarette.

Without warning, one of Lust's Ultimate Spears shot toward Havoc, but instead of hitting him, it severed the lit end of his nicotine stick, sending the smoldering tip to the ground where it burned out.

"Stop huffing those portable exhaust pipes, and you'll up your already impossible odds with me a several points" the homunculus says with a grin. This immediately made Havoc loosen his lips to drop his severed drug tube and toss the package of smokes over his shoulder with a love struck face.

"Sure thing" he drones mindlessly, as he hands the lighter to Breda and sighs.

"So why is Edward being so reckless, he knows how fragile the earth is, doesn't he care about the well-being of our planet, and more important, his friends?" Breda bemoans with a sigh.

"I doubt he'd do anything like this just for the fun of it, he'd be more careful if he was showing off for someone, this has to be an emergency" Hawkeye rebuts firmly.

"You're right, it is, there is something dangerous up in Briggs, and Edward is fighting it right now" Lust remarks as she examines her nails, retracting the spear she shot out and returning its appearance to a finger as she began to examine her other hand.

"Do you know what's going on?" I demand, looking straight into her eyes and seeing a subtle flicker betray the truth to me.

"There is something big happening up North, and you do know what it is, tell me homunculus" I demand, causing her to scoff.

"Now Colonel, I may be one of the "good guys" now, as its so eloquently put, but I'm a double agent, so I have to be careful about letting sensitive information just slip recklessly or too soon, and right now its too soon. If word got out that I'd blabbed about the current events, I'd be destroyed, so I suggest being patient, besides, maybe Edward will share next time you speak with him, but I can't squeal at this point in time, its simply too risky for my health and yours" she argues teasingly. Upon finishing her statement, she promptly began to saunter out the door.

"Well, that's all I can give you for now, I have to go back to Central and keep an eye on Hughes, make sure he stays safe, and remember what Pride said, whisper his name whenever you need his aid, and if he can, he'll give it, for he is watching from the shadows, always" she says creepily as the shadow form of Pride appears at the doorway with its multitude of smiling faces and eyes, then swallows up Lust in a matter of moments before vanishing like the night itself.

"Whoa…that's super cool, but super creepy" Fuery remarks as he shivers a little.

"Screw that, its downright terrifying, I wouldn't travel with him if my life depended on it!" Falman all but shrieks as his composure nearly breaks down from what he'd witnessed.

"Well don't worry, he's on our side, Lust and Pride are both double agents, they'll keep us one step ahead of Father, so we have to remember how they've changed" I say firmly, causing my men, excluding Havoc, and Riza to nod affirmatively.

"Yeah, that Lust sure lives up to her name, she is hot" Jean drones dreamily, having barely registered the events surrounding her departure. We all groaned in annoyance at his attitude, then went back to work.

In the back of my mind though, I worried; if whatever Edward was fighting had enough strength to require him power up to such dangerous levels, what might be going on with Father, what could that bastard be up to?

**Scar**

After several hours of searching, the sun had begun to go down, and Marcoh had not ended up being near his house when we first searched at 1 PM.

Six hours had passed since then, with us scouring the entire town looking for the Crystal Alchemist, even calling him by his real name, Tim Marcoh. But still, we had no luck; either he was no longer here, or we kept missing him due to not knowing how to search for the man, he was the most elusive alchemist whose trail I'd attempted to follow yet.

"Dolcetto, you been able to pick up a scent trail yet? His house reeked of his odor, something should have come up by now" Greed asks with an eager tone.

"Sorry man, nothing, not a single string of aroma molecules to pick up on yet, we must be searching the wrong part of town" Dolcetto replies with a sigh.

"We've searched the whole damn village, but he is nowhere to be found, ugh, we're wasting our time lingering here, lets go" Martel huffs angrily as she begins to stomp back up the road. I was about to follow, till I saw the sign for a small back alley tavern, "The Last Hope" with an image of a kind elderly couple caring for a bed ridden young man carved into the wood.

"Hey…what about that tavern?" I remark, as I point down the side street. The others promptly turned their heads, with the dog man sniffing the air and shaking his head.

"Sorry, it smells like flowers just like the rest of the town, lets go" Dolcetto remarks as they turn around and prepare to leave. I was about to turn and join them, till I caught a whiff of the flowery scent…and stale beer!

"Wait, stop! He's there" I shout, causing Greed to snarl.

"If this is an attempt to try and escape, then you'd better say those prayer things to that god person you always-"

"No you idiot, I'm serious, the alchemist is in that tavern, I'm positive!" I scream, cutting off the abomination curtly, and causing the beast to raise an eyebrow and sniff the air himself, he apparently smelt what I did as his eyes widened upon inhaling, wherein he promptly turned his head to gaze at the canine chimera.

"Dolcetto, take another whiff please" Greed says commandingly.

Obliging to his command, the small chimera took a deep breath, immediately cringing and covering his nose afterward.

"Yuck! Its even stronger here and…wait, I thought the entire town…(sniffs again and gasps) guys, I've been making a big mistake; I thought the entire town smelled like those flowers, but it turns out its just the scent off one source wafting through the entire place. Whoever smells like flowers has covered every inch of this settlement within the past 48 hours, that's why the scent is so noticeable everywhere to me, its just strong enough now that Scar could smell it too with his human nose" the chimera explains.

"You just happened to notice this error now Dolcetto?" Greed admonishes as he taps a foot.

"I make mistakes man, give me a break, I've got the best sense of smell here along with Bido, and he's afraid of sticking his tongue out to make use of it due to Scar's presence, thinks the man will tear it out or something before we can shock him" Dolcetto argues, reminding me about my currently predicament. Despite Edward not having said it was necessary unless my hand shackle was taken off, they had put the electro-collar on me regardless; I felt like a beast of burden in a circus with this contraption on my neck. But since it was plenty comfortable and currently not in use, I didn't complain too much throughout the day.

"My fear is justified, you know that" the lizard whines in protest, staying behind Roa like a shield due to his cowardice.

"Well if the odor is strongest here, that must mean its where Marcoh is, he's the only one who'd have any directive to travel across the entire village; I remember he was a medical alchemist back in the Ishvalan war, he must have been unable to resist helping these poor citizens when he came here to desert the army, lets go get him" Martel says eagerly.

"Wait, let me go in first, he's familiar with both chimeras and homunculi I'm sure, but at least I'm all human, let me go in, without the restraint, I'll try to convince him to come quietly" I say calmly, immediately causing an uproar among the Chimeras.

"No way, why do you think we put the collar on despite your hand still being restrained?" Greed snaps.

"If I go in there like this everyone will know something is strange, and he'll be long gone by the time I get the crowd to stop hassling me, so either you take off the hand restraint or we may lose the doctor you so desperately want to get into protective custody" I retort, causing them to silence themselves and Greed to nod.

"Fine, but if you hurt anyone, I'll mow you down faster than you can say "decomposition" am I clear?" the artificial man says coldly.

"Yes, besides, even if I could kill all of you, Edward would find me within hours, it wouldn't be smart to try anything stupid, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm under his seemingly all-oppressive thumb, so I have to cooperate if I want to ever live and see the return and freedom of my people to our holy land, I give you my word, I will not harm anyone, even the alchemist and his kind that I have a grudge against" I swear, doing my best to show my sincerity. This seemed to appease my handlers so they nodded.

"You know, he's right, we've not taken into account how much of a deterrent Edward and his might is, distance does not matter to Edward so he's almost as swift as the collar, just remember that, and we'll take it off too, ok?" Greed states. I nodded to his deal and signified my submission.

"Very well then" the homunculus responds as he pushes a few buttons to disarm and dislodge the collar, and pulls out the key card, swiping it on my shackle and freeing my hand. Had it not been for the very real threat of Edward and my promise, I'd have taken down the homunculus and his friends here and now, now bound by my word though, I had to go inside to get the doctor without trying to start anything.

Pulling down the sleeves on my arms, I then raised the hood over my head and strolled down the path, pulling the door open and stepping into the tavern. Upon entering I noticed how dim it was lit by nothing but torches, the stench of alcoholic drinks and cigarettes filling the main room.

"Well how do you do friend, welcome to the Last Hope tavern, do you need room and board, or just a drink?" a short old man says cheerfully from behind the counter.

Faking a severe cough, I covered my mouth and wheezed, "I need, (cough) a doctor, please, I have (violent cough the consumption"

Immediately the entire bar emitted a collective gasp, and the man pulled a rope that rang a bell 3 times, suddenly a series of fans turned on and the air was cleared of all stinking aromas within moments.

"Everyone stop smoking for a few minutes, let the man pass through without fear of his condition being aggravated, you all know the rules of Last Hope, all patients with ailments that can be irritated by smoke are given special dispensation when they need to pass through the main area, so snuff em if you got em for now" the man says authoritatively.

I was very pleased, I hated the cancer-inducing, toxic smoke sticks the foolish amestrians huffed that affected everyone around them, it was nice to know other amestrians understood the health risks at least for the sake of the ill, I felt some pride at their consideration and concern for this matter, despite the fact I was not truly ill.

"You poor dear, please come with me, I'll take you to Doctor Mauro immediately, just come with me sir" a short old woman with an appearance similar to that of the one on the sign. After following her through the winding corridors, we came upon an unnoticeable door marked with nothing but a etched number, 13.

"Wait, before you take me to him, I have to show you something" I reply weakly, lowering my hood, and causing her eyes to widen a tiny bit.

"He doesn't hate Ishvalans, does he?" I wheeze.

"Sir, we don't discriminate by race or ethnicity here, we know that there are good and bad people the world over, and race does not favor any particular one over the other in regards to wickedness, most people choose that path themselves from their own foolishness or bigotry. We do not encourage any of that here, nor do we serve anyone who has such compunctions, the fact you're an Ishvalan will not warrant you any different treatment at our bar or with the doctor, go on in" the woman says kindly. I was moved by her genuine heart, the world needed more like her and the bartender.

"Thank you, (cough) can he fix me?" I hack as I cover my mouth.

"He can cure almost anything, he's a real miracle worker, a medical alchemist of the highest degree, we're all grateful he came to us all those many years ago just after the civil war, so you just worry about how thankful you'll be when he cures that consumption" the woman remarks with a chuckle, promptly walking off after her statement.

Opening the door, I stepped in and saw the room was quite dark and smelt heavily of body odor and rotten flesh. In the corner by a multitude of candles, was a middle aged man hunched over a pile of papers.

"Please, hang on just a moment, I have to calculate the cost of my rent versus what I made this month, I have to be very frugal with my money" the man says wearily.

"Doctor Tim Marcoh, better known as the Crystal Alchemist, correct?" I state, causing him to stiffen and whip around.

"Who are you, how do you know my name? Did "they" send you?" he pants nervously as he whips out a gun.

"Whoever "they" are, I assure you it is not on their orders; I'm with a man named Edward, its on his orders that I' am to take you with me into protective custody from the Central Forces that would eventually find you, plus we need to talk about things" I reply with a serious tone. This caused the doctor to frown and tighten the grip on his gun.

"Who are you, step into the light so I can see your face!" he screams as he aims the gun at my head.

As I complied with his statement, I entered the glow of candlelight and let my features be revealed, causing him to gasp and drop his gun.

"I want to know why my boss is so interested in you, what was your role in the Ishvalan War of Extermination waged on my people!" I demand angrily, letting my tone alert him to how adamant I would be in my pursuit of answers.

"Tell me…what is your name?" he asks, his breathes shallow and tense.

Clenching my right fist, I rolled up the sleeve on my right arm and removed my sunglasses, then replied, "My name, is Scar"


	30. The New Puppet Master

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 30: The New Puppet Master**

**May Chang**

"Please keep it up Ling, I know we're rivals but I'd rather not any of us die today!" I shout as the prince slugs Sloth in the jaw again, breaking it violently.

"I'm doing my best, (grunt) but he's a very, very big (yelp), and swift, bruiser-WHOA!" Ling replies, narrowly avoiding several blows and a surprise clothesline sweep.

"Well somebody do something, unless we can get this fight taken outside, I can't fight at my best, and the rest of you are doomed-AAH, WILL YOU STOP THAT YOU BRAT!" Envy screams angrily, his rage climbing after narrowly avoiding a blow out of sheer luck from Sloth, and shaking a fist as he makes the forcible request at his younger brother.

"You are…a traitor, brother…no, mercy!" Sloth roars, his voice having become more fluid along with his increase in speed, and with a mighty bellow, he flew at Envy…and punched his fist straight through the area of our friend's chest that the Philosopher's Stone resided in, the blood dripping from the giant hulk's hands as he gripped the stone tightly. With a disgustingly, horrid flop, Envy fell face first to the floor in a pool of blood.

**Tim Marcoh**

Upon hearing the name, I was shocked so badly, I lost the grip on my weapon, my mind beginning to snap with hysterics as I realized what was really going on.

"You're…so its really you? The Ishvalan man from the military broadcasts I've heard about, the same one who busted up that young boy and his brother who came to me just over a month ago asking about the stone…" I say calmly, just as I begin to break down. In moments I laughing and crying hysterically. "HA HA HA, MY GOD! This must be fate, I'm the alchemist responsible for the extermination of your people!" I wail as I fall to my knees feeling a combination of despair and relief. Suddenly I found myself roughly grabbed by the neck and slammed against the adjacent wall and stared into my eyes with the rage of a man who had everything taken from him and nothing to lose.

"YOU, IT WAS YOU WHO CAUSED THE EXTERMINATION? I SHALL SMITE YOU WHERE YOU STA…(Gasps sharply)" Scar begins, cutting himself short at a remarkable speed as his eyes widen and he becomes fearful, shaking lightly in fact. Releasing his grip and pulling his hands back to his side, he breathed a heavy sigh and turned his back to me as his head hung in shame and sadness.

"No…as much as you deserve it…I can't, I simply can't, I cannot risk the safety of the remainder of my race and our glorious homeland, just to give you justice" he says, his tone laden with grief and despair. This greatly puzzled me, as I thought he would have all the conviction and will needed to destroy me where I stood when I first locked eyes, something else was going on.

"Scar…what are you talking about, I would not hold anything against you if you killed me, I agree, I deserve nothing less than a most gruesome death for the atrocities I helped commit against those innocent men and women, so why are you holding your all too justified hand against me?" I inquire, perplexed at his behavior.

Suddenly, I noticed why he had turned his back, I could hear him sobbing softly, he was crying!

"Because…if I use my hand of justice upon you, _he_, will return retribution a billion fold, striking me down with a fist of wrath, then raining fire from the heavens upon the land of my ancestors, incinerating it, and all its surviving people across Amestris with his god-like might" Scar laments, his sobbing now so intense, that he barely managed to keep it silent and his tone stalwart.

"What…you mean you think if you kill me, your god will punish the rest of you?" I blurt, shocked that that might be what he is crying over.

"No you fool! I do not speak of Ishvala; it is his teachings that compel me to strike you down and avenge his people, my people, by virtue from all I have learned, I should smite you where you stand to avenge the death of my fallen brothers!" he bellows, turning back to face me, his face wet with tears as his features contorted with rage again. In moments though, the rage softened and melted, as the sadness came back, giving him a countenance to match the tear stained cheeks he had gained earlier.

"But…if I were to do this, it is likely that as with the War of Extermination, where Ishvala did not intervene, my god would also let the cataclysm that would surely be brought about by my de facto superior and his unholy power, come to pass too. Once he were to learn of your death, my officer would vaporize me and everything tied to my past, my present…and my future, all with a few bursts of his frightening, demonic energy that makes the blasphemous art of alchemy…seem like the work of saints" Scar weeps, his face dampening more as the tears fall freely.

"What manner of man has this monstrous power you speak of, power that you claim is capable of destroying entire lands with but a few displays of strength? Who, tell me who this Edward is!" I shout as I kneel on one knee before him and place a hand on his left shoulder, now as worried as he was, anyone who could stay the hand of Scar with a mere threat, surely was a force to be reckoned with.

Sucking up the mucus that had built from his crying with a sniffle, he growled and clenched his fists.

"His name?…(Growl) His name…his full name is-"

**May Chang**

As the blood, fluids, and other remains of Envy's body began to disintegrate, I started to sob with fear. Realizing there was only one person who could help us, and knowing he had super hearing, I decided it was our best bet to survive.

"HELP US! WE NEED YOUR HELP, EDWARD-"

**Scar**

"-Elric, the same boy we've both encountered before, with me having just met him again the other day, it is that boy who now has more power than all the world's armies, chimeras, and homunculi combined, countless times over, he is also the one who ordered me to come and bring you into the safe keeping of his company Marcoh" I state, making the Crystal Alchemist gasp and wheeze from surprise.

"E-Edward…wha…what happened to him? I mean, good lord! Your description makes it seem as if he has gained power and skills to rival that of your own deity!" Marcoh cries with shock, yet also…joy.

"No, he is nothing compared to Ishvala, but considering how god often lets men change the course of history unfettered, Edward would be allowed to destroy the very homeland of me and my fallen-"

**Alphonse Elric**

"-BROTHER! BROTHER QUICK, WE NEED YOUR HELP, SAVE US PLEASE!" I scream as loud as I can, my metallic voice echoing through the halls.

As if on cue, the wall at the end of the hall to our north crumbled and collapsed with a bang, as a huge female form flew through the air and into the unprepared body of Sloth with incredible force, sending them both hurtling down the corridor and through the south wall, and clear out the other side to the Amestrian land of the fort.

"Somebody order a hero?" Edward remarks jokingly as he flies in with a graceful swoop.

"EDWARD!" May shrieks with joy, leaping to his arms with a love struck and joyous smile on her face as she nuzzled his chest.

"Hey there squirt, you ok?" he asks kindly, patting her head in response.

"I' am now…thanks to you Mr. Elric" she swoons, hugging him tighter like he was the best stuffed animal in the world.

Suddenly, I felt a surge of jealousy as I saw her affections to my brother; since when did women suddenly throw themselves at Ed, Why can't she like me that much?

With a start, I became more aware of my train of thought, and of the emotions I felt, two that stood out in a most stark and striking manner. Looking at my hands, I noticed that they had begun to tremble with rage, rage of all things! Then, there was a second dangerous feeling I took notice of, the jealousy…the envious desires to be more enticing to May than my brother, I was wanting her to notice me most! As my mind got off its emotional high, the pieces started to make more sense, but even so, the notion and implication of what I just felt led to a startling conclusion.

"If it is true that what I felt was jealousy…envy…when I saw her hugging brother, then…does that mean that I could…I-I could be becoming attached to that little girl?" I say to myself almost inaudibly, however I knew it was highly likely that Ed heard me, I just hoped he didn't think less of his little brother for being so easily angered over such an innocent incident.

"Al…what about you buddy, are you ok?" Ed asks tenderly, his hand already on my left shoulder, I had been so consumed in thought I didn't even hear his foot steps as he approached me at a human pace. Maybe he hadn't heard, I guess I'd just have to play it dumb and hope he didn't know yet, then I could tell him about the issue on my terms.

"Uh…yeah, I'm fine, just a bit shook up is all, Envy got killed…I think, and Sloth almost killed the rest of our friends" I say as I begin to ponder if he really was dead, as I remembered what had occurred with Greed upon meeting him, just under two days before, back in the ruins of Xerxes.

"Relax…you can tell me when you're ready Al, I have a good feeling I know" Edward replies as he looks me in the eyes with a warm smile and pats my back. Turning back to look for Envy's stone, he chuckled and suddenly the large red orb floated out of a pile of rubble till it was in Edward's right palm. Apparently the ability to move object's with his mind was one of his countless new talents.

"He's not dead, he's just hiding, he knew he couldn't fight Sloth like this, so he let his body stay dormant for the time being, smart guy, the big speedy oaf probably stopped thinking about our friend after ripping the stone out and seeing his body evaporate, also I know you can hear this Envy, come on, get out of there, I threw the two Homunculi out into the front yard!" he explains, then shouting as he directs his speech to Envy at the end and taps vigorously on the stone.

With a bubbling sound, the flesh form of the homunculus of jealousy began to pour out and re-build before us as Edward dropped the stone from his hand, Envy's body finishing its reconstitution so quickly that his new feet touched the ground gracefully, the artificial human gasping deeply as he sprung back to life in full.

"Ed? Oh man, for once I'm glad you came, Sloth was crazy man, and with it being too dangerous for the other soldiers here to try and use my true form in a tiny hallway, I had no choice but to stay smaller and do my best, and nothing helped; I even offered him the chance to join us, and still I almost got killed by that crazy bastard, twice! First by taking a blow meant for the little girl, then just now for being a traitor!" he shouts angrily, with Ed keeping his hands on the homunculus's shoulders defensively.

"Its ok Envy, you did what you could, and you've proven once again, just how human you are already; being willing to sacrifice yourself for another, that's one of the most noble things a man can do, I'm proud" my brother says softly, patting Envy's back with a smile, who smiled in turn.

"Yeah…I guess that's true (sniffle)" Envy remarks as his eyes leak a little.

"What's this…tears?" Edward asks jokingly as he wipes a drop off from beneath Envy's left eye.

"No, I'm not crying! I just…-"

"Got something in my eye, yeah I know that old trick pal, you're crying alright (voice gets goofy) just like, a wittle girly girl! Heh heh hehhhhhh" Edward teases.

"I' am not! I'm not crying!" Envy shouts angrily, his tone defensive in nature but clearly not helping his case with its broken, weak, shaky undertones.

"I'm kidding, relax Envy, its called a joke, there is nothing wrong with crying; which yet again only reinforces the obvious fact that you're more human still…there is a lot more than mere condensed jealousy inside that stone where your consciousness resides little homunculus, be proud of that fact" my brother says with a beaming face, making Envy reform his nose to clean it up.

"Thank you Edward…I hate to think what I'd have become if you'd never offered me that chance to change" he says as he hugs him tightly, but in a brotherly way versus the crazy attracted way May had done earlier.

"Heh heh…ok, sappy moment over…this is too intense and emotional for the events currently happening around us, we need to focus and…ugh, stop hugging please!" Ed shout as he forcibly removes Envy's arms.

"Sorry, I just felt so moved Ed, that was a….ahem, a very tender collection of feelings that just occurred" he says with an embarrassed face.

"Relax, it happens, just try to remember and hold those urges until fights are established to be over and its safe to let your guard down" Edward says firmly.

"BROTHER! Speaking of battle, don't we have an evil homunculus and strange super-powered woman to deal with?" I snap, thinking they had mostly lost their train of thought.

"Relax, I'm already working on it" he says dismissively as he heads toward the series of holes that lead toward the outside of the Amestrian front.

"Wait! Brother, there's more, Sloth has a device that amplifies his strength and hides his energy too" I shout, hoping it would get his attention, the sudden halting of his footsteps and instant swivel on his heels to turn and face me with wide eyes.

"Just like Brash…the same technology (eyes harden) Al, he was detectable before activating it, did you see any part of his body that might hold the device in question?" brother yells desperately, his eyes showing he hoped I had an answer.

"No…I couldn't tell whenever I looked upon his form, which wasn't too often the times I did, he's fast brother, and the gadget he used only made him more evasive, he became totally invisible" I reply, Ed cringing angrily as he clenches his fists from the bad news.

"Yeah, well it doesn't really matter, I'm gonna go finish this, you're all welcome to watch from the last hole their bodies made on the way out. Also, find that fat ass Gluttony, he seems to have run off in the madness that occurred, he could have made it a lot easier to defeat Sloth if he'd simply fought his cowardice and stayed by your sides!" he finishes as he begins to levitate, his body tilting till his belly was parallel to the floor, then shot through the series of holes in the walls like an arrow and out of sight to the outside of the fort.

**Tim Marcoh**

Having heard the descriptions about Scar's self-appointed boss, another fact became more apparent as my panic subsided since I knew I would be spared and left unharmed; Edward was alive, and it seems that he knows about everything regarding the Philosopher's Stone, that would be the only reason he'd conscript Scar to come and pick me up, he knew I was a valuable asset to Father and his cronies, and that it was time to go into protective custody, and he apparently thought that it was safest that I be in his company.

"Scar…thank you so much for following Edward's orders, and thank you for sparing me, I had a suspicious feeling after Lust visited me immediately upon the Elric Brother's departure, it was only going be a matter of time till I saw them again, seems he found out about everything just in time it to save this country, and me from being forced to make more of those damnable stones, bless you Scar, bless you!" I shout as I kneel before him.

"Get up, we have to leave, Edward wants you in his presence as soon as possible, and now that I've found and secured you, we must make haste" Scar says sternly, grabbing my arm and dragging me to my feet with a swift jerking motion.

"Ok ok, but please, let me get my papers, I need to drop them off by my house before we leave, they'll get lost if I leave them here" I plead, hoping I'd be allowed that much before being whisked off so suddenly, despite the fact that it was purely for my own good.

"Alright, but make it fast, the others are outside, and I've already been gone over ten minutes, they might get worried and storm in here ready to put that electric collar back on me purely out of spite" he replies, the statement quickly catching my attention at the mention of a collar and making me stop grabbing the piles of documents for a moment.

"Electrical collar, why would they…oh, it was to keep you from killing more alchemists wasn't it?" I respond, the obvious answer flying right in my face after some quick recapping of what I knew about this man from the broadcasts over the military frequencies I'd hacked into after that unnatural series of earth tremors several weeks ago.

"Yes, I refused to listen when I was ordered to stop all the killing at first, so after he created a collar with an electrical charge powerful enough to knock me out in seconds, he gave the control unit to the man leading this operation here to find you, and he also made that threat about destroying Ishval" Scar replies bitterly, his tone clearly indicating his rage at being powerless.

"Wait, there are others with you? What do they look like!" I panic, fearing maybe Scar was originally sent alone and ended up being tricked by the shape-shifting homunculus.

"Relax, the transforming homunculus isn't here; it and most of those demons he works with are no longer a threat, Edward took care of them for good, there are only 2 left that ally with this "Father" person" Scar replies coldly.

Hearing that news, I leapt for joy and screamed with a delightful laugh as I threw my hands in the air, my face beaming with happiness.

"HE'S DEAD! That dreaded monster is dead at last! Oh, this is wonderful news indeed!" I shout elatedly as I toss the rest of my papers haphazardly into my satchel, not even caring that they were now becoming disorganized shuffles I was so ecstatic.

"Well, sadly, the truth is…never mind, you will see for yourself as soon as we're outside, come on" Scar replies, my brain barely registering the words he said as I chuckled mirthfully to myself and finished packing the last of my data and notes.

"Ok, I'm ready, take me to that wonderful child and safety as soon as possible" I state pleasantly as I open the door and head out, then pause to let Scar take the lead. Upon entering the alley, I began to do a little tap dancing and laughed giddily some more.

"He's dead, he's dead, he's dead! At oh so long last, cruel Envy is-"

**Brash**

"-DEAD! Comrade Sloth, we have to retreat or we're both dead!" I scream rapidly, as I flip to my feet out of the snow and begin to panic, my recent fight with the unearthly thing having spooked and thrashed me well beyond of any hope I once had to win.

"Ugh…but we have orders…kill the closed eyes man, and the man pretending as the short blonde kid" Sloth replies as he sits up and rubs his head.

"Sloth, I came here to fight an imposter, _not_ a god! IT'S OVER, WE HAVE NO CHANCE FOR VICTORY, WE MUST GET OUT OF HERE!" I bellow as I smack the dumb oaf with a huge palm.

"Then…what about…the tunnel, does this mean…I can sleep now?" the hulking simpleton drones, causing me to snap his neck in a moment with rage to make my point.

"He'll do a lot more than that to both of us if we stay here you stupid retarded fool! (Pant) We have to make a run for the ice caves along the southwestern end of the range if we're to ever have hope of-"

"Escape…is impossible you bastards" the scary voice of Edward says calmly as he descends from the sky right behind us, stopping to hover just inches above the massive snow drifts.

"I heard your plan, and its pointless, I'm billions of times faster than your top speeds without even trying, you wouldn't get even 5 millimeters before I bash your skulls in and squash your Philosopher's stones beneath my heel" he continues, keeping that sadistic wicked grin as he glared at us.

"I suppose that's what is about to happen to us then, isn't it?" I reply, knowing that it would be over very soon, as earlier he'd constantly held back, but it appeared now would be the killing blow. The sudden, ominous chuckling quickly made me stare at him in alarm; whatever I'd been anticipating before, he obviously had something far worse in-store.

"You know…ha…I actually did consider that idea on the way down here, and I may go ahead and use it on Sloth still later on" Rekinju chortles as he glances at Sloth.

Frighteningly, despite having made no movement other than the rotating of his skull, a series of chains, clamps, and locks made of that same element as that of the huge wall he'd created around us when we fought over in Drachma earlier, erupt from the ground and bind him in huge coils in an instant, even shutting his mouth.

"But you Brash…ho ho…I've got something else in mind for you, something extra special" he laughs as he holds his right hand up, palm facing me. He was clearly ready to fire off another of his energy bursts, this time it'd surely be enough to atomize me.

But instead of a crackling red or blue orb, a transparent golden yellow orb that emitted a low pulsating rhythm like a heart beat appeared above his skin; this greatly worried me.

"W-What is that?" I stutter, finding it hard to use my voice as my fear builds.

"You're unique, and something that shouldn't be here on this planet, yet is; a homunculus…that wasn't made by Father" he says quietly, his smirk widening as he mentions the last part.

Without even moving his arm, the orb shot at me, and before I knew it, I'd been hit, feeling the impact so fast I almost thought it'd hit me before he threw it, my eyes clenching shut upon being struck.

But, something was off; I wasn't dead, and I felt no wound, what the hell did he do? Squinting an eye open, I saw a yellow light all around me, and as I shifted a foot…I realized what the light was. I had been enclosed within a bubble, a bubble of energy!

"What is this? WHAT IS THIS THING!" I scream with panic as I pound the surface, my fists bouncing off as if I'd hit a giant elastic sheet.

"My Ki doesn't have to vaporize, it can also form constructs; that's an energy barrier, also known more commonly as a force-field, it's a coherent and structured lattice of energy that forms an omni-directional shield that's not even made of any solid material, but yet can take far more punishment than most all forms of matter with ease, and this one I trapped you in, has enough durability to hold a star inside running at full power indefinitely. Just think of this as an unbreakable cage, that will keep you captive till you break and tell me what I want to know, and agree to give me that device you have that hides your Ki" Rekinju says with an arrogant smile.

"You…you can't keep me trapped, I'll find a way out, this can't be unbreakable, that's simply impossible!" I bellow as I begin to run around inside and punch and kick every single inch of the inner-surface this "force-field" I was inside. While I was busy attempting to break out, I did not notice Rekinju approaching me until he tapped on the bubble, making a loud echoing pop that got my attention and made me stop my efforts to listen.

"You have information in your mind I want, and technology on your person I need to see, acquisition, and study, so you'd better cooperate, or else" Rekinju threatens. Now I knew what he meant by something special, he was going to keep me trapped indefinitely till he got what he wanted.

"A completely pointless threat, you'll kill me anyways when its over; and to be honest, I'd prefer a brutal, but instant and painless death by your energy blasts rather than tell you the information you seek and face the disappointment and wrath of Mother. Just the shame alone for betraying her would be unacceptable, so you can forget it, I will not yield my secrets" I rebut as I cross my arms and legs as I sit down inside the bubble in defiance.

"Oh ho! You'll tell me alright you stupid bitch" shouts as he picks up the orb in one hand and begins to shake me wildly like a snow globe for several seconds. After the blending, he flung his right arm through the barrier like it didn't exist and grabbed me by the neck with an alchemically enlarged hand thrice the size of my own and yanked just my face outside of the barrier to stare me in the eyes with perfect clarity.

"You-will-tell…_me_!" he growls demonically, as his face takes on the form of…the white one, his eyes just like…the _eyes_! In an instant, I felt all my courage drained straight out of my form through those eyes as I looked at them, if there was one thing I feared more than Mother, that was it; the being known as Truth, and his piercing eyes.

I began to pant with even more fear, and as I felt my resolve dissolve, and decided that I could at least prolong any form of torment by at least spilling my guts to Rekinju. Taking a deep breath, I spoke and screamed, "STOP STOP! I'LL TALK, I'll TALK! I'm sorry, I was just pretending that I wouldn't cooperate ok? I was only kid-"

**Tim Marcoh**

"-Kidding me, you have to be joking!" I shout as I look again at the group Scar said he came with. Four human chimeras, _and_ a homunculus!

"I do not joke Doctor, these are the ones I arrived with, and it is they who are charged with your safe keeping till we return to the north to rejoin Edward and retrieve my brother's research notes" Scar replies with a monotone.

"Doc, you need to chill; you look like you've seen a damn ghost" the girl known as Martel says calmingly, yet her own eyes held a hint of worry.

"I might as well have, he's one of them, the ones planning to sacrifice this entire country to make a giant stone and-"

"Marcoh, listen, that's not likely to happen anymore, you see…(removes sunglasses) we're on your side now" the tall homunculus says with a smile, the form partly comprised of a smug smirk, but also having plenty of a warm, genuine glow of pleasant kindness in his curled lips. Could he really be telling the truth?

"You…you are?" I ask incredulously, still scarcely able to believe what I had been told, and wary as to decide whether or not it was truth or lie.

"Yeah, I turned turncoat, along with four of my other siblings, two of which are the most powerful of all seven Homunculi, I'm one of the younger ones, but I defected from Father earliest, I also did so without much prompting, and of my own choice entirely. Originally my reasons were rather selfish, but after Edward helped me realized what I truly craved…well, I kinda wanna be an actual good guy; the rewards for that choice will be more grand than anything being a hoarding bastard will ultimately gain myself, so can you believe me now doc?" the man asks softly, extending a hand in friendship.

Looking into his eyes, I suddenly found they did not have any glint of inhuman wickedness or malice I'd seen in Father's eyes, I could find no signs that he was faking his reactions, and his muscles were relaxed.

He was truly being honest, he wasn't going to harm me or turn me over to Father, he was like a real person, a human. No longer feeling hesitant, I promptly extended my hand and gave him a firm shake to signify my trust.

"I do believe you, thank you for agreeing to help this country and the human race" I say kindly, proud that he had chosen this path of nobility, the likes of which I've never seen before in any artificial human I'd met. It truly humbled me to know such a homunculus as this one that stood before me now.

"By the way, my name is Greed, Greed the Avaricious, just imagine the amount of convincing and luck Edward needed to sway me" the now purely jovial man laughs with a mirth filled smile. It was enough to make me join them in a warm grin of happiness, excluding the ever dour Scar with his permanent frown.

"Alright, so shall we get to contacting Pride? We'll have to travel by shadow if we want to get to Briggs fast" Greed continues as he looks around for something nearby.

"Wait…Pride, is that another of the Homunculi?" I ask tentatively, hoping someone would answer as Greed looked around in the dark crevices.

"Yeah, his oldest brother, the first one Father made, Pride the Arrogant who usually is very close to Central" Dolcetto remarks casually.

"Then why is he looking in the darkness, from what you've said, he's at the center of Amestris far away, how can he be among the black edges and dark crevices here?" I continue, still surprised that he expected to obtain what he sought from those places.

"Pride can sense via, and manipulate, the shadows themselves, hence the whole "travel by shadows" comment made earlier" Greed shouts from a few dozen feet away near the edge of the alley.

"Pride can open shadow portals from one point to another, its sorta teleportation" Roa adds stoically, the answer finally making sense as I pieced the puzzle together.

"More like spatial warping, because if he can connect between two locations with shadows without crossing the same distance between as normal space would dictate, that's like the journey through the eye that can occur when human transmutation is executed" I remark, amazed at the idea of such a power and how useful it could be for benign purposes.

"Yeah, all I have to do is whisper to the shadows and Pride will eventually hear, and travel here" Greed finishes as he emits a groan of frustration, apparently something had gone wrong.

"Then where is he, if he can open portals it shouldn't take him long to reach us right?" I comment, fairly sure of my assumption.

"Yeah, its almost instantaneous, he must not be able to sneak us any help due to being in the presence of Father" Greed sighs as he pounds the stone wall, a small crack forming from the force of his blow.

"Then I guess we'll just have to wait till he gets privacy and can reach to us, we may have to stay here the night, and if by morning he hasn't been able to provide transport, we'll have to contact Edward with the emergency beacon" Martel says with frustration, kicking away a shard of broken cobblestone at her feet in annoyance.

"Good news is, as long as some of you don't need beds, there is room for everyone at my home on the eastern side" I say with a smile, knowing that just maybe we'd beat the Homunculi after all with so many allies and Edward's newfound power as stated by Scar.

"Then lets make haste, we shouldn't linger out here in the streets, someone from central might wonder through and recognize me, we already know where your house is Marcoh, we found it earlier thanks to the dog chimera" Scar says sourly, making Dolcetto snarl and form a vein on his head that was barely visible in the last glowing rays of the sunset.

"I have a name, you could at least be kind enough to address me by it jerk!" he snaps, causing Scar to growl angrily.

"I'd sooner trust my life to and respect that traitorous murderer than a blasphemous abomination like you!" the Ishvalan bellows as he points to me without taking his gaze off of Dolcetto's eyes. Surprisingly, Dolcetto whimpered sadly and slunk over behind Greed.

"That's it, the restraining devices go back on, you got Marcoh out already, so come on, that was the deal, you were only to be unrestrained for that task" Greed says firmly as he taps a foot, holding out a collar and an extremely lustrous metal clamp that was hand sized. With a deep groaning sigh, Scar lumbered over and held up his right arm, where the clamp was promptly snapped on like a shackle, then the collar was attached to his neck and Greed smiled.

"Good, all secure, now we can really relax; you don't know how eager he was to kill Edward and many of his friends, including me, he even broke the first clamp of Adamantium Ed designed cause Iron is part of its alloy. Its indestructible to everything but direct atomic manipulation, and sadly Scar learned about the Iron part and was able to break it apart the moment he knew" the homunculus says as we begin to head out into the street toward my home.

"Well why is this new one so special, Is it constructed from a new secret alloy?" I inquire, interested in this shiny material that somehow spoke to me that it was far beyond what it seemed.

"Actually its far cooler, that restraining brace's composition is of this pure element called Vibranium Edward conjured with his super alchemy, its not even native to this planet" Martel remarks with a cheerful tone, apparently this Vibranium was cause for great feeling of security as no one had any stress signs now that Scar was under lock and key.

"A new element…well what makes Vibranium so special that it can be used as a restraint for someone as dangerous as Scar, aside from the fact that he couldn't possibly know its atomic structure, what if he simply finds a way to break the atoms apart by extreme heat or sheer force?" I continue, wondering why such a small clamp could be given so much trust in ability it was almost like Scar's blind faith in his god.

"That's the cool part, watch this" Martel remarks as we all stop and she whips out the silencer pistol from her ankle and aims it at Scar, then walks right up to him.

"What are you doing? That's too close!" I shout, remembering the laws of conservation of momentum and energy, and if she were to shoot his clamp at that distance…

With a bang, she fired the extremely muffled gun and I winced, expecting the bullet to ricochet and strike someone, maybe even me, and then we'd need my stone for sure.

But to my surprise, there was even less noise than expected, two seconds later and no ricocheting noises had been made, and when I opened my eyes I saw why.

There upon the surface of Scar's clamp, was the bullet, deformed to the point of being tinfoil and slowly slipping off till it hit the street with a tiny clink, where Greed promptly bent over and grabbed it between his fingers.

"This element, absorbs blows and heat effortlessly, it literally sucks out kinetic vibrations, regardless of the source, and stores it between its atomic bonds, which actually makes it even more durable with every strike" Greed chuckles as he taps the clamp with his knuckles while holding the left over projectile.

"Incredible…that would mean it can absorb all forms of motion derived energy, even sound, a truly silent material, allowing absolute protection from all physical blows, simply astounding" I drone, my shock nearly disabling my ability to talk at all. Suddenly I felt myself picked up by Roa with one arm, holding me on it like a bench while he spoke and looked me in the eyes.

"Doc, I heard about all the good you've done in the years you served our country, and what you've done here according to Scar's testimony earlier; after what you just witnessed, meeting Scar, learning about Edward, and all that, I think you could use a break from walking, I'm part cow, so don't worry about making me tired, I'm literally strong as an ox" Roa says with a smile, then places me atop his shoulders like a child and everyone began to run faster, toward my house like dogs after hearing a bell. However, I wondered worriedly what Edward was like now that he had such great power; was he even human anymore, oh what could he have unlocked with alchemy after seeing my notes?

**Gluttony**

As I cowered in the closet of the room with the other people I'd followed to get away from Sloth, I whimpered and hoped I wouldn't have to come out till my violent younger brother was gone.

"Well, we reached the archives room, so what are we supposed to do now, just sit here and wait?" the bear like man shouts angrily.

"We don't know how to work your Plasma cannon yet Buccaneer, if we did I'd send you out there to obliterate that thing, but since that's not possible yet, we simply have to rely on the others to deal with the threat, its all we can do" the bearded man with a smoking stick remarks as he huffs on it and blows out a white cloud.

"Will you not smoke those in here! Geez haven't you read the countless health warnings about cigarettes, especially second hand smoke? There is even that disclaimer on every pack, honestly, I'd prefer to not get emphysema Randy" the blonde woman shrieks angrily as I peek from the door.

"Yeah…I don't care Kami since we have alchemy to regenerate our lungs and everything else, even if I get health problems, I can simply get an operation to fix the damage, no skin off my nose, same for you if anything should happen" the bearded man chuckles dismissively, the woman fuming with anger at his attitude.

Suddenly, there was a slam and Envy's angry voice roared, "WHERE IS THAT BLOB?"

"He's cowering in the archive vault over there" the bear man says casually.

"Ahhhhh!" I shriek, slamming the door shut, hoping the metal surface might keep Envy from coming in.

A suddenly grating slice noise as a metal blade poked through inches from my face made me understand that that wasn't going to happen, he was getting in and dragging me out to hurt me.

"Gluttony you (slice) stupid, (slice) shameful, (slice) embarrassing, (slice) cowardly, (slice) FATASS!" Envy screams as he hacks the door apart with several well placed cuts of a sword arm, then makes his other one huge and grabs me by my entire body with it and tosses me out on my face, where I skidded painfully across the floor till I was at Ling's feet.

"You abandoned us, in the middle of battle, do you have any idea how disgraceful that is? Not to mention we almost died, only saved due to the timely intervention of Edward, who is now doing all the hard work cause he's apparently bored and the only one who can take them both on with a sense of security" the funny eyed man says angrily as I tilt my head up while still laying on my stomach. I then saw the little girl and the armor man looked at me with hands on their hips, both seemed quite upset too.

"You overweight, sniveling, chicken of a rat, how the hell could you run off and leave your own older brother to his fate!" Envy screams as he grabs me by the throat and yanks me over to stare right in my face with bared teeth.

"Ok calm down Envy, you made your point, let him go, you're overreacting" the armor kid says kindly.

"Overreacting, better listen to this then, if this tub of lard had had an ounce of intelligent, and just a salt grain worth of courage, he'd have rushed to aid us and been able to defeat them by himself!" Envy shouts furiously.

"He's right, if Gluttony had just been brave, he could have come and eaten Sloth alive, he's capable I just know it" the girl shouts, her voice showing she was disappointed a lot.

"Oh but it gets even better, Gluttony here has a special power too, one of the most dangerous of all us Homunculi; fact is Father made him as an attempt to make his own Gate of Truth so he could just access all of alchemy's secrets without any toll or dealing with Truth, his actual goal was a spectacular failure, but it gave Gluttony one of the most dangerous of all the powers us Homunculi have" Envy says with an angry smile as he pats my belly for effect.

"Tubby here can open up the false gate doorway in his stomach to create a tube-shaped, spatial vacuum blast that instantly transports and traps anything within its 25 by 30 foot span, up to a maximum linear distance of just over 300 feet away, into an extra-dimensional gap between reality and the realm of truth, and since its properties works with the fabric of space itself, it affects the area he aims at instantaneously, not even Sloth is that fast. Gluttony could have beaten that giant in a minimum of at least two blows if he'd just stuck around while you kept the speedster busy Ling" my brother explains, making everyone glare at me angrily.

"You could have eaten that thing with ease and you were cowering in a closet!" Buccaneer screams indignantly.

"I don't like using it! It frightens me, it reminds me of…_the eye_" I whimper with fear.

"Yeah you need to stop that, you're one of the most deadly Homunculi and yet you can't use your weapon all because of the big eye, dude come on, have some back bone" the funny eyes man chastises.

**Alphonse**

As I nodded in agreement, I heard a shrill whistle on the wind, and immediately recognized it as Edward's, he must want us to come out.

"Guys, I just heard Ed, we need to get outside, there's news" I announce, causing everyone to stiffen and raise their heads.

"Good, then you will take me and Miles with your group, I have questions too" General Armstrong says as she walks in with Major Miles.

"Uh, right sir, he's on the uh…"front lawn", as he nicknamed it" I reply nervously, still unnerved by her presence.

"Good, then lets go; Katherine and Randall, you two stay here, the rest of you, march!" Olivia shouts as she begins to stroll out into the hall with Miles. Less than five minutes later we were out at the entrance to the fort and headed to Edward's location which was lit up by a yellow glow. As we approached, we saw a most comforting sight.

Bound in a mountain of chains and restraints, was Sloth, hopeless of any chance to even budge more than a few centimeters in any direction, and inside a glowing sphere, was the strange super woman, Brash.

"About time you slow pokes got here, and you General Armstrong" Edward jokes, his tone more serious when addressing Olivia.

"Good job soldier" she comments admirably.

"Please call me Rekinju ma'am, and I'm no soldier, just a guy helping out the real good guys, which are you" my brother remarks, apparently he now had an alias for when he was among enemies in his true form, Rekinju.

"Very well Rekinju, what is the status of the situation?" the general asks as she surveys the two captives.

"The two homunculi are both captive and restrained, you can relax, more extreme measures were needed to contain the female, as she was far-"

"Wait wait, br-I mean sir, sir, you said "homunculi", that's plural" I interrupt, confused as to his wording.

"Obviously, yes, homunculi, there are two of them and both are contained" he says with an annoyed tone.

"But then, where is the second? Sloth is captured, and the woman with powers too but…wait, you mean-"

"BINGO! We have a winner, the woman _is_ the other homunculus!" brother shouts emphatically as he tosses his hands out, apparently aghast at my density of the situation.

"Wait…you said Father only made seven Homunculi, _seven_! If that's true and ironclad…how is it that there are more?" Ling remarks with shock.

"The young lord makes a good point, you made it very clear Father only made seven children, if so how is it there is an eighth creature?" Fu comments from beside.

"Whoa! How did you-"

"We're very good at stealth to most people other than Master Ling, Edward, and the girl from the Chang clan" Lan Fan finishes as she stands there in her mask to my right.

"FOOLS! Its because…the weakling Father did not spawn my life" Brash shouts loudly, making us stare at her.

"Then who made you? I demand answers now, any threat to my country is to be dealt with promptly!" General Armstrong snaps.

"That's right, You already told me plenty, but now that my friends are here, I'm demanding the whole story, so spill it Brash, or else" Edward remarks with a smirk as red lightning crackles on his fingertips.

"Very well, I guess I will have to; I' am Brash the Impatient, and I was created, by her eminence, Mother" the giant woman states, her tone showing great reverence upon mentioning the name mother.

"Mother? What, did Father have a wife who left him before we came along?" Envy jokes, causing us all to stare at him for a moment.

"Sorry, it was just too good to pass up it seemed; who is this Mother person exactly?" the jealous homunculus asks with a raised eyebrow.

"She created me and my other siblings, that's the basic concept, all there is to that part" Brash responds coolly.

"Others, you mean this Mother made more than just you?" I remark, now getting worried, there could be a good reason to worry.

"Of course, did you think she would stop with just one child after seeing how huge a success I was?" Brash replies smugly.

"Who else is there, talk!" Ed shout angrily as he holds a blood red Ki orb up to the containment sphere Brash was trapped inside, making her pant.

"Ok ok! I have 6 other siblings, and they are all more powerful than me, the worst though, is the eldest, her name is-"

"(Sigh) Again sister, why do I even bother?" a groaning, indifferent voice moans from behind Edward.

"WHOA! What the?" brother screams as he almost jumps out of his skin as he flips around to face the girl who had suddenly begun speaking. Before I could see who had come, she was gone again.

"Rekinju, where did she…where did she go?" I ask, a bit frightened now, as to out pace my brother was no easy feat anymore.

"Oh no, it's her, my eldest sister-quick, get me out of here before she can-"

"(Groan) Striking a bargain, how predictable, why do we even bother? You were always the quickest Brash, and as the quickest you were always willing to betray us and Mother the most swiftly as well" the voice speaks again, this time from inside the containment bubble as a tall but slender and gothic girl wraps her arms around Brash's neck like a child.

As I saw her form, I was aghast; she looked like a female version of some artistic things Edward did with his alchemy. The girl's clothing was made from tattered black rags, lacking any style or sign of pride in their design. Even her body, the skin was pale and grey, she had hollow eyes that seemed almost like a void, with lifeless, grey irises, dull listless pupils that showed what seemed an almost utter lack of any desire or interest in…anything, almost pure apathy.

"Apathy! Please, don't take me back to Mother, I was forced to talk, I couldn't control-"

"I know, just like me, Mother forces me to obey too, I guess she'll have to put the same device in you she did in me, not that it really matters, I just don't care, she'll do what she wants, she is Mother, we have to obey her-" the girl begins, then she looks at all of us, especially into my eyes, her gaze making me feel like tearing my head off just to not have to look at her, if I wasn't frozen with fear.

"-we _all_ have to obey Mother" the girl drones hollowly as she holds Brash's neck tighter while looking at me, if I still had my skin it'd crawl right off my bones and flesh she was so frightening. I then realized why the girl was so frightening, she was the exact opposite of Pride, Apathy, Apathy the Indifferent!

"Mother…she calls me, she calls us; I can't stay to play, we have to go now, Mother said that Brash has to be punished, Father will deal with his boy. Maybe I'll see you all again, maybe not, I don't really care, its all up to Mother, but she does says she'll deal with you one day soon Rekinju, be ready to face her and my other siblings, good bye now" the scary girl announces, and with two white flashes she teleports Brash out of the bubble, and then onto Sloth's back, vanishing entirely with both of our prisoners just before Edward can grab them, my brother having roared and leapt at them the moment they appeared on Sloth, his attempts leaving him face first in the snow, which promptly began to melt from his power and anger at the failure to prevent their escape.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Who was that bitch who just messed with us, she creeped me the fuck out, WHO WAS SHE!" Edward roars with rage as he crawls to his hands and knees and looks around.

"She's Apathy-" I begin, causing everyone to look at me in shock.

"-Apathy the Indifferent" I finish, my armor shaking and rattling loudly from my fear that still had no abated. Edward immediately pounded both fists into the earth with such force the entire planet shook for a moment as he screamed in outrage, his voice segueing into a primal roar, like that of a monster, even more terrifying than Apathy or the sound Envy made when he turns into his true form.


	31. Catching Up With The Doc

Dragon Ball GX, Side Story: The Alchemic Saiyan

**Chapter 31: Catching Up With The Doc**

**May Chang**

As Edward screamed in anger, I began to hug Alphonse; he was not attractive at all in this state…he was actually terrifying! His rage shamed even that of dragons themselves, and I had seen one mad, its fury was nothing to Edward's, who was firing off huge streams of red Ki beams into the sky as he roared with indignant and distraught hateful spite at being tricked by the girl who was even scarier than him, Apathy.

"Should we-"

"You want to be ripped in half?" Envy snaps sarcastically as he cuts off Lan Fan, who quickly silenced herself.

"I agree, we can't go near my brother yet, I've seen him like this before when he was wholly human, he has to vent, especially now that he's possibly the strongest being in the universe" Alphonse remarks calmly.

"Well he's clearly not as smart as he's come off as, cause otherwise-MMMMPH" Buccaneer begins, his mouth quickly silenced by the scabbard of General Armstrong's sword in his jaw who was glaring at him.

"Do you want to get us all killed you damn fool! He's so blinded with anger he might swing his head over here and vaporize us, use your head!" she chastises with a furious tone. I hoped Edward would calm down soon.

"Come on, lets go back inside May" Alphonse say softly as he picks me up with care and begins to carry me.

"But, what about Edward?" I ask worriedly, my concern at an all-time high as I saw him begin tearing his clothes apart while his anger continued to flow, his eyes still spewing those lethal red Ki beams like a faucet.

"Whether underneath a glacier or inside a raging inferno, it makes no difference nor matters, temperature extremes like these no longer affect my brother in his true form, he'll be fine out here even overnight" Alphonse replies calmly, causing Ling to laugh.

"Ha ha! Now that is handy, it explains why I've stopped feeling cold outside, this Ki energizing effect is amazing!" the prince exclaims excitedly as he walks along side Lan Fan and Fu. As I looked up at Alphonse's face, I felt a sudden pang of attraction, he was so mature and confident, even more than his older brother it seemed, and his body, his true form is really handsome too, maybe if things didn't work out with Edward…

Just as I began to fantasize of having dinner with Alphonse, I heard his voice interrupting my thoughts with a, "May, are you feeling ok, your face is red, has the cold gotten to you?"

I began to blush even harder as I realized what had been happening and nodded my head weakly to lie and cover the truth and my embarrassment.

"Yes, I must be colder than I thought, take me inside quickly, please" I plead, hoping to get a private room to regain my composure in and stop feeling like my face would melt.

"Agreed, we all need to get out of the cold, it seems only Edward can endure this harsh landscape unprotected, and a good thing, he needs solitude for now, everyone back inside!" General Armstrong commands as she points to the door, everyone moving faster. Underneath my parka, Xiao-Mei shivered, the cold having gotten to her a lot quicker than me, and I patted her head, assuring her with whispering words that we were almost inside. Taking one last backwards glance at Edward and his tantrum, I sighed, wondering who I should pick, who would be the man I should love?

_10 Hours Later-6:05 AM, Dawn at Haimburgin_

**Tim Marcoh**

As I awakened, I sighed and groaned, my back aching from having slept bad once again as I sat up; things just kept getting worse after that damn civil war with Ishval, but maybe there was hope yet now that Edward was super powerful and well versed in alchemy. I shuddered at the thought that maybe, he'd done it by performing human transmutation again, but I quickly banished that train of thinking and focused on getting out of my bed and onto my feet so I could go to the restroom and do my business. Trudging heavily across the wooden floors, I made it to the restroom door and was surprised to hear the shower running. Knocking on the door, I got a harsh reply.

"Who is it! Can you not hear how its occupied?" the voice of Martel shouts irritably.

"Its me, Doctor Marcoh, I need to use the restroom please!" I shout, hoping she'd either let me in to do my business or be done soon.

"Oh, Marcoh; hang on I'll be out in a minute" she replies with an apologetic tone. True to her word, just over a minute later, the water stopped and I heard her clamoring out of the tub and toward the door, where she promptly opened it and walked out, clothed in a large towel, her wet hair dripping considerably.

"I'll dry it when I have more privacy in another room, say what are we going to do for breakfast?" Martel asks casually, her tone indicating she was rather relaxed.

"Well I thought we'd try contacting the Pride fellow first and getting out of here instead of wasting time if we don't need to, we'll have something to eat if we can't contact him or Edward" I reply, causing her to nod affirmatively.

"Then I'd better go wake the others up once I'm dressed, provided they haven't already been woken by Greed that is" she chuckles as she rushes off down the hallway to another room as I began to enter the restroom.

15 minutes later, I was all freshened up and prepared for the day, and began to head back downstairs, where to my surprise, they were all awake and waiting for me.

"What took you so long ya old codger?" Greed chuckles jokingly, causing the others and myself to laugh too.

"Ha ha, I know, I'm not thrilled with being an old man either, all these aches and pains are very undesirable but it's a part of being human, having to age and wear down" I reply, trying to ignore my creaking bones in my back.

"But I thought Edward said that accepting that stuff as just inevitable was a load of bull-"

SLAP!

"Heh heh heh heh, oh that Bido is quite a kidder, yes he is, ha ha ha; Bido! That's a bit too much for the doc to take in right now, he has to hear all that stuff from Edward later, so shush!" Greed responds with laughter after smacking the homunculus, his tone switching to a barely audible whisper when Bido's name was mentioned a second time in his sentence, piquing my intrigue vastly. However he was right, this was best heard from the man who likely knew the details best; Edward Elric.

"So have you tried to contact Pride yet?" I inquire to Greed, who nodded once.

"Yeah, that's the problem, he's still not answering, something must be wrong" he says calmly.

"Then why are you so at ease, isn't this cause to worry?" I remark, hoping I was wrong and we weren't stranded.

"Oh don't be ridiculous, we still have our failsafe; Edward's Emergency Beacon he gave, once activated he'll be down here to rescue everyone present faster than you can say "human transmutation alchemic rebound" ha ha!" Greed chuckles as he holds out the small metal tube with buttons and strange lights on it.

"Speaking of everyone here, has anyone noticed the missing Ishvalan yet?" Roa comments dryly, making my attention snap back to alertness as I frantically looked around with my eyes.

"Oh my, where did he run off to!" I panic, worrying what he might be up to; shit! What if he's found out how to break down and deconstruct the Vibranium restraint clamp?

"Relax, he's just outside, no need to wet yourselves like a bunch of feral beasts" Dolcetto chuckles. Promptly rushing outside, I spoke with a raised but hushed voice, "Scar! Where are you?"

"I'm up here Doctor Marcoh" a flat toned response remarks, causing my eyes to wander to the roof where I saw he was laying down.

"What the…Scar, why are you on top of my home?" I ask as I look up to see the man lying on his back against the shingles.

"I slept here, and you just woke me up, luckily I was going to awaken on my own with a few more minutes when the sunlight reached my face" he replies calmly as he begins to sit up and stretch.

"Scar, you slept on my roof the entire night?" I ask with disbelief, finding it hard to believe he could stand to sleep on such a hard surface.

"I wasn't about to sleep under the same roof with abominations, a demon, and a murdering traitor, also, no one said I couldn't sleep here, so it worked best for everyone" he replies curtly while leaping off the roof gracefully onto his feet before me.

"Oh…well that's understandable, I suppose, the good news is you're alright, and its time to get going now Scar" I reply, hoping he was still on board with us. Nodding his head, I led him back inside and we reassembled with the others, with Greed still holding the beacon device.

"Alright, we're all gathered, good; now as soon as I activate this beacon, I'd advise you step back cause he'll probably come right where the beacon's signal is emitting, and you don't want to be in his way when he does pop in, believe me" Greed announces as he sets the device on the floor and pushes a red button on the side, causing a red light on top to begin flashing, while a low volume ping begins to echo in 2 second intervals. As this beacon was turned on, I wondered how Edward would find his way to us.

**Edward Elric**

Having thrashed fitfully the whole night at first, I finally drifted off late into the evening when I had exhausted my rage, falling into a deep sleep, now as the sun rose up, I smiled, enjoying how my new Saiyan body was better built to handle sleeping and waking due to its durability and strength. Rising up, I yawned and began to scratch my chest.

However I realized something was off, and when I looked down I screamed in shock. "AHH! My clothes, damn it! I must have ripped them to pieces yesterday during my pissed off state" I remark to myself as I see my form is totally devoid of any covering. However this also proved that I was now immune to ordinary extremes of hot and cold, even while unconscious, as I felt perfectly fine despite having slept in a snow bank, which now had mostly melted from my body heat, with some snow beneath me, but in a slushier state than that around me. Floating onto my feet and into the air, I chuckled, feeling rather pleasant now that I realized the lighter side of the news that had been revealed yesterday.

There just _may_ be a challenger now that could give me a run for my money.

Having reached full alertness, I began to summon snow and other surrounding matter to myself, and in moments, reformed my outfit on my body with a few concentrated remote transmutations, then promptly began to flit around the air in flight with some cheer and delight, knowing I'd eventually get a good fight in the future.

"HA HAAAAAAAAAAAA! Yeah, I can hardly wait to fight such a foe, one worthy of my migh-AAHHHHHHH!" I scream, my shout changing from one of elation to pain as I felt my Ki sense assaulted by sharp stabs of fluctuation, nearly losing my concentration and falling from the sky. Holding my head, I wondered what the hell was causing this, as far as knowledge went, the only ones on this planet that could actively manipulate Ki were me and Ling.

"But if he's asleep and I'm here, what could possibly…(smack) I cannot believe of all things to forget, that the most obvious one nearly escaped my memory, the beacon of course! But that would mean Pride hasn't been able to sneak his help to Greed and the others" I shout to myself.

Apparently, Mother was a far more annoying an insect than I had previously perceived yesterday before Apathy made her appearance. Knowing that Greed's group and Marcoh wouldn't have used the beacon unless they could not receive aid from Pride, it was time to go get them myself, and maybe in time for an early breakfast in the fort. Once again focusing my energies and mind, I initiated the transmutation of my body into tachyon particles and vanished in a series of lines as I performed my fastest transportation technique once more.

**Tim Marcoh**

As I waited eagerly, I hoped that Edward was still the bright-eyed, naïve, idealist I had met over a month ago, the very reason I had found fit to share with him my research notes.

"Hey Doctor Marcoh!" a voice states cheerfully as a body appears before me without warning.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I scream in panic as I fall over on my ass, groaning in pain from the impact. Greed promptly began to laugh his own ass off as he doubled over in hysterics.

"HA HA HA HA! OH HO MAN! You should have seen your face Marcoh, it was priceless" the homunculus chuckles while he holds his head and stomach. Causing the man before me to snarl a little, then resumed smiling and offered me a hand.

"Sorry about that Marcoh, I didn't realize _he_ was still that selfish and rude" the man remarks as he glances over at Greed with a disapproving stare, making the artificial human instantly stop laughing upon seeing his face.

"Ok ok, I'm sorry Ed, geez cut me some slack, I'm the incarnation of greed and all that, I'm still trying to adapt, not exactly easy being a textbook hero" he replies defensively as he holds his hands up near his face. My eyes widened as I heard the name Ed being used.

"Wait, Ed…Edward Elric, is that you?" I remark incredulously as I crane my head up a bit to see his face which was now above mine.

"Marcoh, you old pole cat hair son of a bitch, come here!" the man shouts exuberantly as he pulls me into a quick but crushing two second embrace then pats my back hard, the end result leaving me wheezing frantically.

"Wow…(wheeze) you're definitely a lot stronger and taller than when we last met" I pant as I catch my breath and try to ignore the pain.

"Yeah, its great to see you again, Crystal Alchemist" Edward salutes with a smile.

"Heh, yeah, as it is to see you Fullmetal Alche…(deep gasp) Edward! Yo-Yo-Your arm, your leg…is it tru-are they rea…Blblblbl, Edward my boy, are those your real-"

"Yeah, they sure are, I got flesh and blood limbs back, both of them" he replies, cutting off my sputtering stutter fest, my eyes still staring in amazement.

"You did it…HA HA! MY BOY YOU DID IT! YOU GOT YOUR BODIES BACK!" I laugh with joy as I rush over and hug him, my mood suddenly dropping as I realized the price they must have had to pay to achieve this.

"Edward, I-I really hope that…you didn't have to harm anyone to pay the toll for your limbs and stuff son" I continue, my mood slightly dampened from the realization that there might be a dark back-story to how he had regained his brother's body and his arm and legs.

"Ha! As if, I didn't even have to use a Philosopher's Stone for me or my brother!" he shouts triumphantly. As I heard his response, I felt my jaw drop in utter shock and bafflement.

"Really? But…how, Edward how did you pull that off?" I drone, barely able to believe what I had heard.

"There will be time for that later, first, let me fix your back" he replies as he taps my body jaggedly several times, the pain spiking to agonizing levels for a few moments, but then…suddenly vanishing, every last trace of my discomfort completely dissipating from my bones and muscles.

"Edward…this is-"

"Unbelievable? I know; now you want to try and get out of here before the central soldiers outside your house burst in and catch us, or do you want to waste time jabbering and me ending up having to beat the tar out of several of Bradley's goons to avoid getting apprehended before I can get you to safety?" Edward states, finishing my sentence and cutting me off as he explains the situation the rest of us had been completely unaware of.

"How the hell did we not notice them? Three of us have very enhanced animal senses!" Greed shouts as he glares at Dolcetto, Bido, and Martel.

"Hey, we only smelled dirt, we didn't think it was suspicious at the time, cut us some slack, they were crafty!" Martel argues.

"Irrelevant! We're out of here _yesterday_, everyone link up hands to me and we're on our way!" Edward shouts authoritatively as he offers his hands. Understanding his logic, I quickly grabbed hold and the others followed suit, with Greed using his other hand to hold Scar by the scruff of his neck.

Then, in a strange sensation of momentary weightlessness, the surroundings of my house vanished and were instantly replaced by those of a military base mess hall as I felt my body's heaviness return and landed on my feet. Upon fully regaining awareness, my body registered a stark change in temperature and humidity; the air in this new location was much warmer, drier as well, like central heating was in use. When I saw the rest of Greed's group, followed by the soldiers, who had clearly been thoroughly freaked out by this event as evident by the sudden surge in murmurs and frozen faces, I began to wonder what exactly Edward had just done to change our location.

"MEN! Stop gawking, its just highly advanced alchemy, you should expect nothing short of mind-blowing from the greatest alchemist and warrior in all of Amestris, and likely, on the entire planet; unless you have compliments or serious questions, return to your personal business and eat your rations. Have I made myself clear?" the sharp, commanding, and unmistakable voice of the most infamous relative of my old friend Major Armstrong shouts. Instantly the men looked away and went about the activities they had been engaged in before our arrival.

"General, I'd like you to meet Tim Marcoh, formally and formerly known as the Crystal Alchemist before he deserted the Amestrian Armed Forces. Dr. Marcoh, this is-"

"I know who she is Edward; Olivia Mira Armstrong, its an honor to see you again General Sir" I state, stopping Edward before he can do my introductions for me as well, making him blink in shock.

"Wait, you mean two already know each other?" the looming Elric brother remarks with surprise.

"Yeah, I had no idea that such an old geezer would know such a beautiful woman" Greed remarks with a whistle as he removes his shades and pockets them, causing Martel to gasp angrily and promptly punch him in the right arm.

"Shameless" Scar remarks monotonously as he glares at the homunculus.

"For once, much as that pains me, I'm inclined to agree with the terrorist, you've got some nerve flirting like that in front of me" Martel snaps irritably.

"Babe, I'm sorry, really, but I'm _Greed_, remember? It's who I' am, it may not improve significantly till I'm no longer merged with a philosopher's stone, just have some patience ok?" Greed replies to the girl, making her smile weakly, apparently showing some profound trust and faith in his words.

"As for you "Scar", you can stick it up your ass hypocrite! Self-righteous bastards like you have no grounds to stand upon and condemn others for morally ambiguous, questionable, or neutral actions and lifestyle choices" the artificial human rebuts masterfully with a scoff.

"A disgraceful abomination like you that has no heart, spirit, or soul beyond the innocent ones trapped and bonded to your accursed stone is beyond redemption, and is by default nothing more than an instrument of corruption, spite, wickedness, and evil" Scar states calmly with conviction, then turns his back to head for a table nearby and take a seat.

But just when I thought it was over, I saw Greed snarling and growling as he clenched and ground his teeth so hard, it sounded like rocks scraping each other, then moments later, snapped.

"Oh I'm the abomination and disgrace am I?" Greed shouts angrily, causing many people to stop again and stare, Scar however kept walking to the seat.

"Well newsflash dick, I'M NOT THE GUY WHO KILLED A LITTLE GIRL AND HER PET DOG TOO!" the homunculus bellows, making many of the soldiers and myself gasp in horror as Scar himself stopped mid-stride and turned around, his face still hard and unfazed.

As he began to step forward in the direction of Greed's position, Edward instantly moved from where he stood and placed his right hand on Scar's chest and gave him a glare that made Greed's pale in comparison for scale of intensity as he held up the other hand clenched in a fist, the body language clearly screaming, "Open your mouth and I'll put you through a wall!"

Scar instantly backed down and resumed heading for his seat, where he sat down with a huff. Once that situation was avoided, I approached Edward, my jaw slack both from amazement at how much control Edward had over Scar, and the horror at having learned the bare truth that it was indeed the public menace several feet away who had killed the darling Nina along with her father, my former friend Shou Tucker.

"Edward…is it really true? Is she…-" I start, unable to finish the sentence due to how sad the truth was. The boy nodded sadly and hung his head.

"I could have stopped that from happening, I should have just killed Tucker before he could ruin her life since I had no idea I'd ever get the kind of powers or knowledge I now have, its all my fault Marcoh, I'm so sorry" Edward explains, his voice strained as he gritted his teeth, then looked up to me with watery eyes.

"You met her, didn't you?" I remark, the rest of Greed's group having gone off to try and get food and to give us some privacy. Edward nodded weakly, wiping his eyes and sniffling to avoid full-blown crying.

"Yeah, I happened to meet her one day last year just after her third birthday, she was so sweet, their dog Alexander too, it pains me greatly, knowing that Scar, of all people, had to be the one that did this" I lament, remembering the sweet child and how happy, innocent, and joyful she was. Edward nodded again and sighed.

"What I don't understand is why, why would Scar kill an innocent girl and her dog? She wasn't even an alchemist" I continue, still in disbelief that even a man as warped and dogmatic as Scar could do something so heinous. Apparently this made Edward very stressed as he slammed the table and stomped the ground, collapsing the furnishing to splinters and shaking the base like an earthquake had struck for several moments, making my chair nearly fall over as I barely jumped out of the seat and onto my feet while it toppled over without me. Seeing what had happened, my eyes all but popped out of my skull as I gawked at the sight.

Edward had smashed a foot deep impression of his boot into the concrete floor and was not showing any signs of pain or damage as he casually removed his foot from the depression to reveal something even more shocking; molten material! To have melted the parts of concrete that actually can melt like rocks, his foot fall would have to have generated enough pressure so quickly, that during the span of his footfall, the forces exerted had to increase its temperature to over 2000 degrees in less than the time it takes to blink.

I quickly realized as I saw Edward's calm state he was in after doing something this unbelievable, that Scar had not even begun to put Edward's new scale of power into words.

"Shou Tucker…that bastard, he fused Nina with Alexander to create a talking chimera for his yearly evaluation, just like he did with his wife two years ago to get his initial State Alchemist certification" Edward snarls as he clenches his hands in spite at the memories, his words instantly shattering my previous train of thought on fear of how powerful he might actually be, with disbelief and appall at the revelation of truth behind the secret to the former Life Sewing Alchemist's claim to fame.

"So he killed her out of what he considered mercy…can you really condemn him for what he did considering?" I ask, hoping Edward wouldn't disagree. With a heavy sigh, he nodded back.

"Yes, at the time I had tried to convince myself that there was a way even though I didn't truly believe it, but if I had only gotten these powers sooner…I could already cure her if she were still alive; now I'll have to wait for my secret plan to see if it will work after this whole mess with Father and Mother has been cleaned up, until then, we have to prepare for the war" he responds, his voice firming up near the end of his statements.

"I hope this secret plan works, but for now, I need to get caught up Edward, and you can start by explaining _that_!" I shout as I point to the boot shaped depression in the floor filled with molten matter. He chuckled and put an arm on my shoulder and led me toward the exit.

"Marcoh…there is a lot you need to get caught up on, please come with me, my brother and other new friends are waiting to see you" Edward laughs as we walk out the door and into the halls.

**Ling Yao**

As I slept peacefully and dreamed of a lovely dinner with Lan Fan, I smiled and licked my lips as I admired hers, their skin inviting and sumptuous, their appearance just begging me to touch and taste. Leaning forward, I prepared to make contact and then-

"LING YOU LAZY BUM GET UP!" Lan Fan suddenly shouts, snapping me out of my trance and moments later out of my dreams, her face replaced by that of Edward in his true form as he bend down into my cot to stare in my eyes.

"(Groan) You ass, why would you wake me up at this hour, its not even breakfast time, when I smell that iron skillet frying I'll be ready to get up" I mumble as I turn over and try to go back to sleep, faking snoring to try and be convincing.

Without warning, I felt something very hard and painful smash into the back of my skull with a loud gong noise.

"AAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWW WWWWW! WHAT THE HELL!" I shriek as I clutch the back of my head which throbbed in agony.

"Get up, _now_, that goes for all of you!" Edward shouts as he raps the skillet he'd obviously conjured with his alchemy some more to repeat the gong sounds, everyone slowly waking up and groaning in distaste at this form of treatment, save Fu and Lan Fan, who almost instantly leapt out of bed and stood at my side after the first gong noise that came from the contact with my skull.

"Edward (moan) come on, even us artificial humans like to sleep" Envy mumbles as he gets off the floor, his dog form's red eyes glowing in the still dim room. There was promptly a scream of horror in the voice of the man I now realized had accompanied Edward into the room.

"ITS, ITS, ITS, ITS YOU, ENVY!" the man screams like the world was ending.

**Tim Marcoh**

The moment I had turned on the lights, my eyes wandered to the glowing red eyes I could recognized anywhere, and this time the demon had taken the form of a vicious hound.

"What the hell? he told me him and most of the other Homunculi had been taken care of for good, but he's still alive!" I pant, wondering what was going on.

"Huh, Marcoh…is that you?" Envy asks as he resumes his androgynous human form slowly in a flash of red light and stares me in the eyes intensely, his gaze appearing to be filled with shock.

"N-N-No, you stay away from me you monster! EDWARD HELP!" I scream as I scramble over behind him, worried he might try and take me back to Father.

"Wait, why are you scared, you said Greed told you…(eyes narrow) I'll be right back Marcoh" Edward begins, his voice tightening with anger near the end of his sentence, and with a wisp of lines, he vanishes into thin air.

"Wait, DON'T LEAVE ME HERE WITH THAT DEMONIC FIEND!" I beg, desperately hoping he had not abandoned me. My fears were absolved when he returned a moment later, this time with a passenger, and it was Greed, whom he was holding by his left ear!

"Ow ow ow ow ow ow! Hey man, what the hell did I do this time?" Greed whines in pain as he looks Edward in the face.

"Greed, what did you tell Dr. Marcoh about Envy and your other siblings who had defected from Father, word for word, right now, It obviously has to do with why Marcoh here is shaking in his boots, so talk!" Edward shouts authoritatively and shoves Greed over to my side where he turns to face me with a groan.

"Greed, what is that monster doing here, why is he here in Briggs, how could you let that demon up here!" I shout, shaking his vest manically as my panic takes hold.

"Marcoh, you got it all wrong pal, I told you five of the seven homunculi had defected from Father, me and four of my other siblings, I never said nor insinuated they got taken care of for good like Scar did" Greed replies casually as he removes my hands and smoothes out the wrinkles I made. Turning my face to look at Envy I point and my fear turns to anger and disbelief.

"There is no way that monster would ever leave Father, he's a psychopath who loves nothing but to kill the most people he can!" I scream, causing the infamous Envy to be taken aback and back step several feet in what appeared to be shock. Feeling pissed, I decided to just speak my mind and let loose my feelings of hate, knowing Edward would make sure he at least didn't hurt anyone if I angered him.

"He's not a human, not even close! He hates everything that we are, he says we're weak and stupid, and that we're foolish to a complete and utter fault, that we're hopeless, pointless, and nothing more than an energy source for their use, this monster is the furthest thing from human possible, he's a selfish, rotten, wicked, shape-shifting DEMON! A FIEND WITH NO HEART, SOUL, OR SENSE OF CONSCIENCE! I HOPE SOMEONE INCINERATES YOU TO ASH ENVY, YOU FREAK!" I bellow, making everyone in the room stiffen up, and the girl to actually gasp.

Strangely, I saw Envy's face had not moved, but his eyes seemed to be quivering, and then I saw it, a single tear rolled down each eye and without any warning, he ran at the wall and then busted through it, and kept running, breaking through each obstacle with a very loud crash, his feet imprints perfected preserved in the metal.

Standing frozen with shock, I couldn't comprehend what had just occurred, nothing made sense now.

WHACK!

"OWWWWWWW! What the hell did you do that for Edward?" I wince as I grip the back of my head from the light tap he gave in that area.

"Marcoh, what did you do that for!" he shouts angrily, my eyes widening as I hear his phrase.

"Are you serious? Edward, do you have any idea-"

"I know everything about that you do and a hell lot more!" Edward snaps, cutting me off and making my thoughts and mouth silence as I see the look in his eyes; one of chastising rebuttal. I quickly came to the conclusion that…much of my previous perceptions of the world were now invalid, void, or misconceived. Unable to wait, I put my hands on Edward's shoulders and looked into his eyes with a pleading gaze.

"Edward…what happened since we last met over a month ago?" I beg, hoping he'd be in a mood to tell me everything. He chuckled weakly and put a hand on my shoulder to ease my mind, and somehow it did.

"Come with me Marcoh, you need to hear everything my friend" he replies gently. Then in another dizzying whoosh, we began to go through the strange instantaneous transportation method once again.

**Alphonse Elric**

As I stood out on the top of the fortress wall, I stared in the direction of Rush Valley and worried if she might be ok, my brother would probably destroy the Earth if anything were to happen to her, which is what scared me most. After seeing his outrage yesterday, I couldn't exactly say he'd never do something as drastic as blowing up the world, which was what made me unable to relax. The only thing that helped distract my mind from my fears of my now god-like brother, was the thoughts about May.

"What is it about this girl that just makes my mind keep wandering back to her? What!" I ask myself out loud, glad that no one but my brother had a chance of hearing this in the morning blizzard I stood in.

All of a sudden, there was the now familiar noise of Edward using his teleportation powers and he appeared a few feet away with…wait, he retrieved him at last!

"Doctor Marcoh!" I shout with joy as I rush over to him and hug him. This promptly caused the doctor to freak out when my super chilled armor body touched his human flesh.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I was just so glad to see you I got a bit overexcited" I reply sheepishly.

"Its quite alright, Edward is there anyway you could-"

Without a second thought I found Edward touching my shoulder and the cold was instantly dispelled with a warm glow that touched me to my core as a light yellow aura cling to my skin.

"Oh…thank you Edward, that feels so much better, that reminds me, Alphonse what's going on, your brother has a full body again, why are you still living armor?" Marcoh asks tentatively. I realized that Edward must not have told him the truth yet.

"Marcoh, I did get my body back, but thanks to my brother's actions to obtain it…things…didn't quite work out as planned" I reply uneasily, unable to stay very calm and collected.

"What, what do you mean, you're still merged with the armor, how is it your body could be-"

"MARCOH, I STOLE HIS BODY FROM THE REALM OF TRUTH!" my brother blurts angrily, shutting up Marcoh long enough to start listening as I put a hand on his shoulder.

"Dr. Marcoh…Brother transmuted himself to my body and took it by force, he didn't offer anything in exchange, nor did he try, he demanded Truth give me up or he'd get a fight, Truth relinquished and my body was set free, but it was still without my essence, my soul remains in here" I explain as I tap my chest, then remove my head and show him the blood seal. Making him gasp.

"Scar was right, you are too powerful, or…maybe you're not powerful enough…AHH, I DON'T KNOW ANYMORE! (Pant) Edward, you have broken the law of equivalent exchange, without a stone! That's not possible, that's not supposed to be possible, it might unravel the fabric of the universe or something, maybe even-MMMPPMMMPPPPHHH!" he screams, his rant interrupted again as Edward clamps a hand over his mouth to shut him up forcibly, Marcoh was apparently too excited to pause and listen of his own volition, and unfortunately for him, my brother wasn't in a patient mood.

"Shut…up…your face, and listen to me Marcoh!" Edward snaps, making the doctor calm visibly and finally stop trying to scream. Upon removing his hand, Edward sighed deeply.

"Marcoh…we have a lot to talk about" he says solemnly, and I knew then we were about to mounty up and drop the full truth on him, and I hoped he'd be able to take it.

_1 hour later_

**Tim Marcoh**

As I began to fully absorb what I had learned, a few things sank in, like how rude I'd been to Envy, and how terrifying Edward truly was, and worst, what might await us regarding this new fiend called Mother who had even managed to have a pawn able to hoodwink Edward after his return as a super alien being.

However, what concerned me most, was the most perplexing issue of all.

"Alphonse…what happens if your body gets destroyed while your soul is still bonded to the armor?" I inquire as the younger Elric brother clanks his feet nervously.

"I don't know…I really don't know Doctor Marcoh, this situation is something even Edward knows nothing about" Alphonse replies somberly, making my concern magnify still more.

"But…I had an idea" he continues, causing Edward and myself to jerk to attention.

"You have an idea, come on Al spit it out!" Edward snaps impatiently, causing the armor boy to flinch for a moment.

"W-Well, I was talking to May about the field of Biological Alchemy and Alkahestry last night just before she went to bed, and then that got me to thinking about DNA…and then I remembered how you can transform your body from your former human shape, to your new Saiyan body. If you can do that in a matter of seconds…couldn't you possibly clone me a new body even if its destroyed?" Alphonse explains, causing our jaws to drop; I was astounded at his cleverness, he'd just found a failsafe backup idea!

"Damn…why the hell didn't I think of that sooner? Al, you're a genius!" Edward beams admirably, making Alphonse rub the back of his helmet bashfully.

"Ha, and here I' am, stuffed with enough knowledge to fill over a million billion Central Library Archives, but I couldn't reach that conclusion as fast as you, good job bro, we can relax some at last" Edward laughs as he begins to float on his back and kick a leg up in good spirits.

"But Edward, how are you going to un-bond his soul from the armor safely and then put it into another vessel?" I remark as I remember another key issue mentioned from earlier. With a scream, Edward flailed and fell out of the air onto his back, denting the metal in a slight impression of his body from the impact as he groaned in not pain, but annoyance.

"Way to ruin my mood doc, couldn't you have mentioned that another time, we know that's the biggest issue of all, but now that the destruction of his original body isn't an issue to worry about, we can take our time, and fix this after we deal with Father and Mother" Edward retorts, I was about to smile, but then I remembered the last thing to worry about.

"What about his armor body? His soul is bonded to this suit, so if the blood seal is damaged, it will do the equivalent of killing him, and his suit is only made of antique steel" I point out, causing Edward to rub his chin in serious thought.

"Hmmmmm…you know Marcoh, you're absolutely right, he needs more protection, especially against threats like Mother and her children, even Father's remaining goons are a potential threat" he begins, then begins to walk over to his brother, stopping and standing right in front of him.

Clapping his hands, the familiar echo heralding an alchemic reaction rang through the air and Edward began to place his hands on Alphonse's shoulders as he said, "Hold still Al"

With a flash, the lightning-like discharge poured around the armor, and suddenly, a lustrous silver sheen began to form around every nook and cranny. Within minutes, the suit was quite bulkier and the boy looked like he was made of silver, and he began marveling at his new coating. As Alphonse tapped himself and found he emitted no sound, I instantly realized why I had felt a sting of Déjà vu at the sight of his gleam.

"That's Vibranium…you coated your brother's entire body in it!" I exclaim, shocked that he had done it so quickly.

"Yeah, I had to really focus so that my modifications didn't screw with his blood seal beneath, but it worked, now he's "Al Take You All On!" Edward guffaws as he doubles over in hysterics.

"NO WAY! There is no way you're making that my nickname!" Alphonse screams indignantly with an embarrassed tone. Still laughing his ass off, Edward slapped his brother's back hard, but shockingly he didn't budge and still no sound came from the action.

"Lighten up bro, I was teasing, blame my master, he has a corny sense of humor like King Kai, it rubbed off on me some. So then what should your new nickname be then, (grins) Al-Balone?" Edward continues, apparently stuck on a pun streak.

"Oh shut up!" Al fumes as he begins to rush silently toward the exit and runs back inside the base, his tone laced with intense embarrassment.

"Well Marcoh, I think we should try and finish up out here and go back inside to discuss plans for what to do about Scar, the rest of Father's lackeys, and most important, the new crisis regarding Mother and her homunculi I cannot track yet" Edward states as he begins to lean over the railing.

"Edward, before we go back inside, I have a question, a very serious one that I have to ask you alone where no one else can hear me" I start, causing him to smile.

"Sure, anything Marcoh, just say it" he replies cheerfully, as he gazes at the morning sky with a smile, enjoying the sunrise; I felt a little guilty now knowing I was about to ask such a grim question, but I couldn't wait, it had to be discussed, and with a sigh, I gathered my fortitude and began to speak.

"Edward…what do you think of Human Transmutation now?" I ask nervously, causing him to lightly chuckle, his gaze unbroken.

"I use it all the time to disguise myself, its very useful" he says happily. I realized he had not understood my question properly, for he obviously now knew of likely over a billion uses for the field that were amazing yet wholly benevolent.

"I'm talking about creating Philosopher's stones and attempting resurrection" I remark flatly, causing his muscles to tense up as he whipped around and faced me, his smile now gone, replaced with a concerned straight face.

"Why do you ask of such things?" he counters suspiciously, his eyes showing a subtle flare of anger just beneath his gaze.

"Edward…is it possible to bring back the dead with human transmutation?" I ask firmly, desperate for an answer. Edward smiled then shook his head.

"Yes, it is, but I' am not going to do it, the price is far too high; besides, there are better ways that don't require a price, and I shall reveal them when the time is right" he says with a smile as he pulls out a strange glowing rainbow gem from his shirt on a necklace and holds it. I suddenly become captivated by the beautiful gem.

"We'll talk about it another time when all this craziness has been solved, I promise Doctor Marcoh, come on lets go back inside and have some breakfast, I'm starving, how about you?" Edward says with a smile as he puts a hand on my shoulder. Smiling back I understood how he wanted to avoid the subject for now, and nodded.

"Sure, lets go eat, I'm pretty hungry myself" I laugh as we head back to the stairwell door and go inside. As we got into the fortress, I felt us begin to break down again via Edward's marvelous and strange power of teleportation. During the shift from matter to energy, I wondered, was there really that much to worry about if Edward is this powerful?


End file.
